Friday March 28th 2025

Dear Diary,

The timetable for today’s visit to Castle Hill Primary changed a number of times before I got there, and in the end, the hall was needed first thing, meaning I didn’t get to do my assembly. But every cloud has a silver lining… and the beauty of this was that it allowed me to host workshops for Years 1 and 2, as well as all the other year groups! What a treat!!! When I arrived at the school, I was instantly recognised by the pupils – partly from my visit last Autumn, but mostly because I’d sent a video message in for them to watch on World Book Day – so I received an extremely warm welcome, and there was a super atmosphere buzzing around the school all day. My first workshop was for Year 5, and the pupils impressed me just as much as last year with their hard work, their incredible imaginations, and the speed at which they work. I especially loved Henry’s story about a dragon having eaten his homework:

Next, it was a session for Year 4. And once again, it was lovely to see familiar faces from last November in this classroom. Lots of great pieces of work were produced, everyone was keen to read aloud, and I thought Albert’s acrostic poem entitled Dragon Farts vs Zombie Farts was super (or should that be DISGUSTING?!?):

Year 1’s workshop was over in a flash, and I had to leave the teacher to decide who to award certificates to. But I was extremely impressed by how many of the pupils were happy to have a go at writing during this session, rather than simply drawing. Year 2 then also blew me away… particularly Emily and Cameela:

After a platinum assembly – during which it was announced that the marvellous Mrs Ettrick has now been appointed as permanent headteacher, much to the delight of all the staff and pupils – it was on to my penultimate workshop, for Year 3. It was a real struggle to decide who to award certificates to in this group, as there were so many outstanding pieces of work created. In one of the stories, the class teacher, Mrs Jones, turned into a dragon!!! And Esme’s poem really tickled me, too:

I spent the end of the day with the lovely Year 6 pupils, and I wish I’d taken more certificates along with me today. We ended up handing one out to nearly everyone in the class, and I felt really bad that I didn’t have enough with me for EVERYBODY, as they all deserved one. I wish I’d had longer with these super pupils, too, as I’d have loved to have heard more of their stories, given the time. I was very impressed with the start to Gracie’s:

With another school visit under my belt (taking the total count to 77 so far), I now need to get ready for next week’s visits. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of spending my days with school pupils, watching them tap into their imaginations, and helping them to develop their ideas. Writing children’s stories is great fun, but spending so much time with the children those stories are intended for is the icing on the cake!!!