Monday March 31st 2025
Dear Diary,
Today’s school visit was a little farther afield than normal, as I was in Berkshire today, visiting Compton Primary. It was the first time I’ve been to this lovely school – so the pupils hadn’t come across either of my books before. And weren’t they a fantastic audience during my assembly!?! There were giggles galore when we all discussed whether anyone would try to save their sibling if they got whisked away by a (maybe) dragon… and then decided how to defend ourselves from a dragon attack (I wish I could remember some of the comical responses). But you could hear a pin drop when I read a couple of opening chapters from WARNING: May Contain Dragons!!!
My first workshop was in the hall, for Reception and Year 1. With two different sets of activities going on at once, I was impressed by both the speed at which the Reception pupils traced over their sentences about the story and the imagination of the Year 1 pupils, who produced some fantastic stories of their own. Especially Oliver, who drew a wonderful picture of a dragon eating his grandma, to accompany his story:
Next, it was on to a session with Year 2. We had lots of pupils reading their work aloud in this workshop, and I particularly loved Eleri’s and Sebastian’s stories, both entitled Dragon Farts vs Zombie Farts. Here’s Sebastian’s:
In Year 3, the students were so quiet. But don’t worry, they hadn’t fallen asleep! They were simply concentrating hard on their written work. Arlo was really good at taking feedback and acting on it, and Ella was very brave reading her story aloud to me. But it was Ewa’s story entitled Why Don’t Dragons Wear Pyjamas that really stood out.
After a busy morning, we still managed to fit a fourth session in before lunch! For Year 4. Once again, it was wonderful to see so many children willing and eager to read their creations out in front of their peers. I thought Emelia’s story about a dragon who had just eaten her grandma was brilliant:
And Lexi’s story about a dragon hiding under little Timmy’s bed was super, too:
Things certainly ramped up a gear after lunch, as Year 5 was a noisy bunch! But the chatter in the classroom was simply because so many of the pupils were working together on stories, or sharing ideas and inspiration. Ben’s story about dragon farts vs zombie farts was beautifully written, but I sadly don’t have a photo of it to share. There were so many certificate winners in this class, too!
My final session was with Year 6, another great group of students… who were even noisier than Year 6. They weren’t all as eager to share their work aloud with their peers, but they produced lots of it in the hour I spent with them, and worked hard right up until the very end of the day. Ethan’s and Sophie’s stories were my favourites during this session. But I can’t for the life of me remember what either of them was about now.
My brain tends to always be a bit frazzled from around 2.30pm onwards, after non-stop days like today. So, it wasn’t great to discover that the Wi-Fi had dropped out… AND I had no phone signal… when it came to home time. Luckily, the parents who wanted to purchase copies of the books and the super staff, pupils, and PTA member all hustled, and we soon found a way to make some sales. The stress of it all didn’t take away from the fact that the rest of the day had been picture perfect, though (with many perfect pictures produced during the comic-strip activity in the longer sessions, too). The staff were super today; the pupils were incredible, well-mannered, and a joy to spend time with; and the only downside was that I didn’t get to stay longer! I hope to return to Compton Primary again in the future, and I’m grateful to everyone there for filling today with many more memories that I’ll treasure.
