• St Margaret’s Primary in Aberdare, South Wales, is quite a small school. I was pleased of this as I was quite tired by the end of this week of school visiting. Smaller group sizes means less projecting to a large audience, so today’s sessions were much more intimate.

    I was impressed by one writer in year five. She had written several redemption stories about Paris Hilton. In each story, Paris would be kidnapped by such inanimate objects as cheesey puff balls and staple guns, and saved from spending ridiculous amounts of money on handbags! She will go far with an imagination like that.

    I had a lovely day there, and thanks to all for making me feel so welcome.

    All my visits are part of the Rhondda, Cynon Taf are part of their Improving writing skills through developing pupil oracy project. We met up for a chat with storyteller, Daniel Morden and poet Francesca Kaye at Esis, the local education resource centre. Here they had the fabulous Bro Mahogany Male Voice Choir, pictured below, on show. It was carved by Hugh Roberts and took eighteen months to carve.

  • Haworth Primary School teacher, Caron Stone asked me if I would come and open their new Key stage one Library for them. I sensed a special teacher and a special school so I was more than happy to say yes. You can sense some schools really buzzing the moment you walk in and Haworth is one of those. The day was brilliantly planned and ran to the minute, even if I did go overtime a bit!

    Caron Stone in the new Haworth KS1 Library

    The new Library is gorgeous, stuffed with picturebooks and younger titles. Not a computer in sight -well, there is the librarian’s computer for logging books in and out, but not one to get in the way of books and stories – hooray!

    The Reception children made me Cat and Dog biscuits which were wonderful. I showed them how to draw and paint Cat and dog and they went on to do some fantastic drawings.

    I was a bit too scary for some in years one and two – I’m very sorry! With years three and four, we came up with a brilliant story about pirahnas and years five and six came up with a brilliant ghost idea that was o good I might use it myself, so I’m not going to tell you about it!

    TheLibrary opening was helped along with some fantastic home made cakes. The chocolate fairy cakes were a particular triumph!

    Bob Swindells, the children’s author joined us too as he lives locally with his wife, Brenda, who turned out to have taught Caron when she was younger and inspired her to become a teacher herself!

    Thanks for a wonderful day and good luck with the rest of the week.

  • I’m catching up with my posts! Last Friday I visited Pewley Down Infant School in the morning and Holy Trinity Junior School in the afternoon.

    I had a wonderful time at both schools. Each was buzzing with excitement and activity, with lots going on for Book week. Geraldine, their Librarian, helped me find an art shop to buy some paper so I could finish some artwork over the weekend. Many thanks – It all got in the post on Monday! While in town, I noticed that the statue of the Surrey Scholar had a cigarette butt stuck in his mouth – not a good example – Im sure!

    I saw a lovely old sign painted on a shop wall in town. I don’t suppose you gat palnning permission to do it these days, but I think it adds something to the environment. Old and faded lettering does something to me. To me it represents what the Japanese call Wabi-sabi. We don’t really have a word for it or a concept either, I don’t think. It’s a sort f beauty in imperfection.

    The trip gave me the opportunity to stay the night at my wife’s delightfully eccentric Uncle Roger’s house. Being and engineer, he likes to do things his way. The unintuitive toilet handle in the photograph is only one of many examples of what we like to call pottyness. His house is covered in interesting notes explaining how things work – usually differently to the way they work everywhere else!