I thoroughly enjoy working with pupils and have delivered a wide variety of workshops directly with pupils. All have been bespoke and given schools the opportunity to focus on different aspects of children’s learning. I often deliver these sessions with a number of teachers and teaching assistants watching them (and joining in) as it is a great way to deliver really effective CPD. Over the years, I have worked with all age groups and probably covered every aspect of English from story making to delivering Shakespeare effectively. I love a challenge!
I has delivered a number of whole school workshop days. Recently, my World Book Day began with a whole school assembly for the 2 form entry school St Marys RC Primary in Rochdale, using my book Lizzie and the birds. I then spent the day working with every year group creating lots of writing opportunities with the book. Upper Key Stage 2 absolutely loved writing the rules for living with the birds, whilst Year 2 interviewed me about what it was like to create the book and were very searching in their questioning!
A similar day was spent with Ribble Drive in Bury earlier this spring. This allowed the children to look at the process of writing from the original ideas, through all the different incarnations of a story to the end product. By looking at the samples of writing I brought and all the original art work they were able to see how long (and often painful!) the writing process is and the power and importance of editing. It also allowed me to share my love of puppetry and help the pupils create new characters for the book, which they absolutely loved!
I am never happier than when I am delivering bespoke poetry workshops. Here is an example of a day I spent working on penguin poetry with foundation pupils; writing different types of chocolate poetry with Year 1, 2 and 3 (glorious!) ; concrete poetry with Year 4; metaphor poetry with Year 5 and war poetry with Year 6 (have a look at a break down of some of these lessons in the poetry section). Here the class are bringing poetry to life!
I have been regularly working in schools delivering workshops to extend the more able pupils. Drama has been at the heart of many of these sessions and I spend time working with the children on linking reading to writing to produce high quality writing outcomes. Each session is planned with the class teacher to ensure that it meets the needs of the pupils and really engages them. I have also worked alongside authors, such as Guy Bass, helping pupils see themselves as writers, often using art and illustration to explore their creativity. Here you can see upper KS 2 pupils creating their own monsters for one of Guy Bass’s books and then making their own books about them:
Contact me directly if you have any questions about these days or would like to find out more about what I have worked with other schools on.