• My Valentine Rose drawing school video has proved very popular and on the strength of it, I’ve been asked to draw an Irish Shamrock for St Patrick’s Day. Here you are…

  • Barry Island Beach

    I had a wonderful day at Cadoxton Primary School in Barry, South Wales, today. It’s a vast towering, hulk of Victorian brick and stone outside but cosy and friendly and beautifully modernised inside.

    I’m visiting quite a few Schools in the Rhonda, Cynon Taf area for their Developing writing through oracy project, which I think translates into – it’s good to talk. We came up with several story ideas based on my characters, but the best had to be Reception. While trying to think of good place to hide in the hall, we realised that there were footprints on the ceiling! This developed into an idea about one of the children who was a spider child that could walk upside down on the ceiling – great fun. Thanks to all for making me feel so welcome.

    Afterwards I took the opportunity to have a quick look at Barry Island itself and had a quick walk on the beach – having watched all of Gavin and Stacey, I had to really!

  • 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.