31 Mar Broadclyst World Book Day!
There have been so many exciting things going on lately that’s it’s been difficult to keep up. But I must mention a WONDERFUL visit to Broadclyst Community Primary School for World Book Day.
I knew I was in for an amazing day when I was greeted by an Oompa-Loompa. The effort that the teachers and the children had put into the costumes was brilliant. You can have a look at some of the costumes here.
Throughout the whole day the children were fantastic, full of enthusiasm for books and stories. I had the pleasure of working with every year group, from Nursery up to Year 6. The younger ones had tremendous fun creating monsters of the most weird and wonderful kind and thinking of a story about it.
We also talked about ways of finding inspiration. I was delighted with the story ideas which the children came up with when we used a spider-gram to explore a fox as a main character. And as there was a piano in the room, I couldn’t resist doing a little Bill-Bailey-style demonstration about how music can generate different moods and help you think of ideas. But perhaps my favourite part was a boy coming up to me at the end and saying, ‘Thank you. You’ve just helped me work out the end to my story. I’ve been stuck on that for ages.’
There are always delightfully memorable aspects to every school visit. I loved it when one girl came up, telling me to remember her name because she’s decided to become a famous author. As requested, I have committed her name to memory…I wonder if she’ll remember me when she’s hitting the bestseller charts?
Another highlight of the day was being interviewed for the school’s amazing BTV (Broadclyst TV). There are various things I’ve done in the past which have been nerve-wracking, like abseiling and jumping out of aeroplanes at 10,000 feet, but I’m not sure they compare to being interviewed for the school’s television station. The Year 5 boy doing the interview was, of course, cool, calm and extremely professional. Whereas I, completely unused to bright camera lights and screens and microphones everywhere, was undoubtedly a gibbering wreck.
Everyone put so much into the event – so a big thank to all the staff and children for inviting me in and making it such a wonderful day. I hope you continue to love reading, love imagination – and write that story about the fox!