I’ve had a flurry of school visits recently to tie in with World Book Day which was on Thursday 2nd March – unfortunately designated a strike day by the South-East region of the National Education Union! Luckily for me, my visit for that day was able to be rescheduled.
I visited Saracens High School in Barnet and spoke to Years 7 to 10, and in the same week I went to Halstead Prep School and spoke to Reception up to Year 6. Normally I speak to Years 4-8, so this was a challenging combination! Delightfully, the children of Halstead were all dressed up, so I delivered my talks and storytelling to Winnie the Witch, several Miss Trunchbulls, many princesses and wizards and a Super Mario!
Last week I was also made very welcome at Langley Grammar in Slough and did talks and workshops with Year 7, who came up with some stunning pieces of writing:
This coming week, I’m off to John Lyon School in Harrow. I love school visits. The travel can be tricky and I do get exhausted and need several days to recover, but there’s something about talking stories with young people that’s very exciting and invigorating. And to be fair, I do like standing on a stage with a microphone and talking to a big audience – it reminds me of my old theatre days!
Thank you very much to all the librarians, staff and students for making me feel so welcome and for coming up with such brilliant ideas in our story creation sessions! And thank you as ever to the brilliant Authors Aloud who organise most of my school visits and are worth their weight in gold.
Jo Cotterill 