Monday November 25th 2024

Dear Diary,

I had another wonderful day today, on my visit to Eldersfield Lawn C of E Primary. After a whole-school assembly (during which we had pupils wanting to use magic to turn spiders into frogs, turn their family members into half-cow-half-horse combinations, and make it rain money), I then got to host workshops for EVERYONE. What a treat!!! I started off with the remarkable Reception pupils. They produced some hilarious pictures of incredibly odd Uncle John, with his mismatched shoes, his disgusting teeth, and his gravy-stained cardigan. Then they designed their own book covers before wowing me even more by practising their writing skills, tracing over sentences about Uncle John. My next workshop was with Years 1 & 2. At least, I THINK it was. The quality of the work produced during this session made it very hard to believe that these pupils weren’t in KS2! There were definitely a number of future authors in this group! After lunch, Years 3 & 4 welcomed me into their classroom. I loved how these pupils had such individual and unique writing styles. It seemed that hearing me read the opening chapters of WARNING: Magic Can Be Dangerous! in the assembly this morning sparked their creative juices, giving them the confidence to try new approaches to writing. There were so many brilliant stories, poems, acrostic poems, raps, blurbs, and backstories created in this session. And Years 5 & 6 finished the day off with a flourish by coming up with some real masterpieces, many of which were collaborations, and ALL of which were certificate-worthy (despite the fact that there sadly weren’t enough certificates left for everyone by this point). Sarah kindly invited me to this incredible school, and she and the staff were a great help during the workshops. As for the pupils of Eldersfield Lawn… well, they were utterly delightful in every single way! Their teachers and I were so impressed with their behaviour and their work today, and it was so much fun spending time with them all. They made every second of my visit memorable and unforgettable. I thoroughly look forward to returning next year with WARNING: May Contain Dragons and getting to know them all a little better.