Oh, it’s all been mad busy. And I seem to have lost my brain down the back of the sofa somewhere…
but anyhoo. On Thursday 5th March I had a LOVELY day at my Patron of Reading school, Burford. Hello, Burford! *waves madly* And hello Lynne the awesome librarian!
I did a talk to the whole of Y7 and Y8 in the morning, in the hall. They had a huge stage built JUST for me! (No, they didn’t. It was for a musical production. But I couldn’t resist it!) This was taken during my Q&A session, when I ran around like a mad loon and pulled weird faces:
Then I did two creative writing workshops, with a mixture of Y7, 8 and 9 students who were very tolerant of my peculiar ideas: turn a squiggle into a drawing? Give it a book title?! Then tear it up and throw it away??!
I’m all for throwing work away. The trouble with writing stuff for school is that you’re constantly aware that someone else is going to read it. Writing can be very personal, and the only way to explore your own abilities fully is to not show anyone. That way you can be as expressive or daring or vulnerable as you like. There’s only so much one can achieve in an hour’s workshop, but these students had a laugh anyway:
though clearly the students in this one didn’t appreciate exactly how funny I was…!
School visits can be hard work but I love working with kids and I love talking to them and answering their questions. I almost always get asked something I’ve never been asked before, which keeps me on my toes!
Thanks to Burford for having me!
And keep an eye on this blog because something AWESOME is coming in just an hour from now…!
Jo Cotterill 