Monday March 10th 2025

Dear Diary,

Springbank Primary Academy may not have arranged glorious weather for today’s school visit, but the atmosphere inside the school soon made up for that, with many pupils peeking into the hall in excitement as they passed by on their way to registration. I felt a little bit faint when I arrived (perhaps there IS such a thing as too many school visits!), but I soon perked up when I got stuck into my assembly… up on stage!!! The pupils came up with some brilliant ideas for what they’d do if they had magic at their fingertips – with one of them keen to use magic to turn her sisters into shoes and then wear them! Very original!!! And the day continued with much merriment right up until home time. With shorter sessions than normal, the children did really well to complete two activities during each workshop, and I know their teachers were all incredibly proud of them for the effort they put in and all the work they produced. My first workshop was for Year 5. There were so many standout stories during this session, but I thought Charis’ witty anecdote about a crazy old lady who hates children so much that she builds a machine to shoot them into space was genius! During Year 3’s session, it was Emily’s diary account of what it’s like to be a child top-secret agent that really caught my eye. Imagine being on top-secret mission – dodging lasers with your laser 3,000 and stealing bitcoins with your laser cutter 4,000 – only to get home and find you’re in trouble with your mum! In the last workshop before lunch, for Year 4, I was really impressed with a story about another top-secret agent, by Ricardo. And during the afternoon sessions, so many more certificates were awarded. Sadly, my tired brain has forgotten to keep track of all my favourite creations after lunch, but I seem to remember loving yet another piece of work about a top-secret agent – a poem by Adam in Year 5 – and also a collaboration by Eryn and Erin in Year 6. Weirdly, a common theme ran through all the workshops today. I don’t know if it was just coincidence, or if there’s something I’m unaware of, but SO many of the characters the pupils dreamt up today were called Tim! It was wonderful, once again, to hear the teachers mention that children who don’t normally get stuck into written work had blown them away today. I often hear how prescriptive the National Curriculum is, so it’s lovely to get the chance to mix things up in schools every now and then and give the pupils a chance to write more freely, without the constraints that are normally put on them. With another school visit for my next book (WARNING: May Contain Dragons) tomorrow, I need to go and unpack all of my worksheets etc. and reload my author trolley with everything dragons before I hit the hay. I’m beginning to feel as though I don’t know whether I’m coming or going at the moment, switching from a visit with one book to a visit with the next book from one day to another. But if I’ve encouraged just a few more children to keep reading and writing today, then I know I’ll sleep well!