School Round Up Part Two


I was delighted be invited to Manor Fields Primary School in Bishops' Stortford last week. The  visit got off to a great start when I saw these gorgeous posters up everywhere. These definitely win top prize in the Most Impressive School Publicity category!
It was a hugely rewarding and enjoyable day.
Posters designed by school parent Andrea Thorpe,
who you won't be surprised to learn has 
her own design company.



First there was a lively assembly with the whole school (it always makes my day when one of the youngest children picks the grey curly wig out of Emily's investigation kit bag, and agrees to wear it to demonstrate its disguise potential!) 
This was followed by a whole-day adventure story writing workshop with Y5. It was a whirlwind  crash course on everything you need to know to be an author - and the students all did a brilliant job of keeping the ideas coming; everything from secret identities to pizza kings to spooky halloween mysteries. The "hook-your-reader-in-and-don't-let-them-go" opening lines that were shared at the end of the day were great.  I'm really looking forward to reading the first chapters and seeing the cover designs when the students send them in for the competition.
We also squeezed in time to talk about everything to do with salamanders, sleuths and supercars with Y3 and Y4 and a short "paparazzi break' while the very nice photographer from the Herts and Essex Observer took some pictures of us doing our grinniest grins. The pictures can be seen along with a  report on the on-line version of the paper here.
The day ended with one of the biggest queues for book signings that I have ever seen. If I develop writer's cramp I'll know who to blame!!
Some of the children gave me pictures they had drawn, including this lovely version of the cover of The Mystery of the Cursed Ruby by Anisa.


Thank you to everyone from Manor Fields for making me so wlecome. Everyone from head to governors to teachers and teaching assistants to dinner ladies to children was friendly, enthusiastic and positive.  And a special thank you to Aimee Schilder in Year 5 who read the Adventure Island books in the summer and came up with the idea of the author visit day in the first place.
I hope you all had a great time at the Junior Disco that evening. If I'd had my dancing shoes with me I'd have been very tempted to stay . . .

Comments 


Love the article! It was a really brilliant day and I and my fellow pupils had an absolute blast. I have written the opening chapter of my Adventure Island story and hope that my teachers will be sending it to you soon. I agree that the queue for the book-signing was ridiculously long, but we will all treasure our personally signed copies! Thank you again for coming. We all learnt so much about creative writing. Lots of love Aimee Schilder, Year 5 Pupil, Manor Fields Primary X