A Victorian Christmas

I spent all day yesterday with the Year 6s at Smawthorne Henry Moore Primary in Castleford, on the theme of 'A Victorian Christmas.' I've learned lots from researching this particular topic. For example, in the mid 1800s, the smell from the Thames was so overpowering and so grim, that the Members of Parliament upped and left, in the middle of their working day. It became known as 'The Great Stink.' I'd say that over the last few years there have been quite a lot of 'Great Stinks' when it comes to MPs! Also discovered that Sainsbury's and Boots started at this time from very humble beginnings in London. Not to mention that the phrase 'Mad as a Hatter' came from the Victorians as hat makers used mercury in their hat making, which in turn got into their blood and gave a number of them brain damage, turning them insane. Watching 'Alice in Wonderland' will never be the same again!

One of my favourite parts of the days was the poetry that the class came up with. I read them some Edward Lear, Hilaire Beloc, (and some of mine), and then got them to come up with their own nonsense limericks. Mrs Stott with a face full of snot was one of the best.

It will take me a good number of return visits before I get my head round the layout of the school. It was explained to me that it was essentially a figure of eight with a bulge at one side. Well, without frequent staff assistance I think I'd have been lost in the bulge a number of times!

Now it's Christmas full steam ahead for me. No more schools til Jan 3rd. Merry Christmas every one!

More poems

I've just been reading through the poems from tonight's competition. And there are some truly brilliant ones. One of the best, that nearly won the competition (but not quite. Oh, so close!), was written by my zany, wacky, and fantastic nephew Tom. It's about an angry suitcase. Here goes...

The Angry Suitcase

There was once an angry suitcase
Who snapped and snapped all night
People kept on throwing him
Until his face went white
But one day it all began!
And then he had a plan!
An extremely evil plan!
He had himself fitted wheels
And snapped at people's heels
And then he gave brith
And now his son rules the earth!!!!!

Written by Tom



Another fantastic poem (and appropriate for this time of year), was from Maddie, who decided that making up words was her best chance of success. And how close she came to winning the whole thing! Hers is about fireworks...

Firework-alicious

Fireworks are Bangtastic
Vampires think Fangtastic
I think Fandabatastic
What do you think?


Written by Maddie



The entries were awesome! Well done everyone and keep writing. Here's to next year's competition!

St Peters' Poetry Competition

There were some great poems handed in for the competition tonight. I must have had nearly 30 entries, which soundly beat last year's total of about 6. The winners, in the end, were Corey, Ellis and Dylan, who beat off competition from loads of other pupils. Here is their winning entry in full. It's untitled, but I have decided to call it 'Heart of Gold.'

Heart of Gold

I'm rich!
I'm rich!
I've just been told,
I have a heart of gold.
I might sell it,
But I doubt it,
I don't think I'll live without it!


Well done boys. And enjoy all the sweets that you won in the process! I sometimes see poems and think 'I wish I'd written that.' And this is one of them. Really brilliant.

Stanley St Peters' and heads falling off!

Today I had a rather special assembly - at Alice's school! She was sooooo excited that her daddy was going to be reading his poems to everyone at school. And when she walked in, I was full of smiles. As was she. But goodness me, WHAT a lot of children! There must have been 300 filling the hall from front to back. And they were pretty noisy. But it seems they enjoyed it. One child was apparently heard to say to his childminder that he laughed so much his head fell off and he had to get tape to stick it back on again!

And the accompanying evening shopping event went really well. Lots of books were sold, and lots of poems were written. Which leads me on to the next post...

Poetry Day at Ecclesall

What a GREAT day I've had at Ecclesall Junior school in Sheffield. Rarely have I been made to feel quite so welcome. Everyone was so kind - I even had cups of coffee brought to me as I worked!

And the children were amazing. The Year group poems at the beginning of the day that were showcased to me were outstanding. I loved the song / poem that the Y5 children did about Lowry (very moving, I found). The Y6 poem inspired after their visit to the World War Battlefields in France was stunning (not to mention the trumpet solo - or was it trombone? I always get them mixed up!). I'm still wondering what I'd do if I had Year 4s magic key, but my favourite had to be Y3s pet poem with the stick insect called (stickers?) who lived in some... Brilliant!

After I'd heard them I wondered how on earth I'd follow suit, but I did not need to have worried. As always, it's the children that come up with the really good stuff. I just have to give them some ideas, get them inspired, and then let them go. And go they did! They worked incredibly hard, and seemed to really enjoy the competition at the end of the day. Sammy, the winner from 5 C, was out of this world. But the other poets who made the final were excellent too. Highlights for me included ...

'My love for you is as perfect as teachers shutting up!' (A love poem written to football, I think it was!)

'It's...
It's...
It's...

Fallen out of my ears.' A reference to what happened to one young poet's idea for a brilliant sport poem when he 'forgot' to write the idea down.

Thanks to everyone at the Junior School. I truly truly had a fab time. Oh, and thanks to the poets who kept presenting me with poems that they'd written throughout the day. I was really touched to be given them.

Good school, good fun, goodnight!

Crown Jewels Theft!

Today I was up at Kinsley Primary, a lovely school in Pontefract. I ran a whole day based on the idea that the Crown Jewels had been stolen and that my uncle, Inspector Morris, had phoned me up to see if I could get the children to help. And did they ever! The kids were brilliant. The Y1s made some great posters to stick up around school advertising the fact that the jewels had been stolen. Miss Ellis' Y1/2 class discovered jewels hidden around school, and, intriguingly, including a stash outside the headteacher's door. Y3 was probably the most exciting session, as we rang a local jeweller's and put him on speaker phone to tell us what had happened. He'd had a strange gentleman in that very morning trying to flog the Crown Jewels! Y4/5 wrote an impassioned plea from the Queen for the robber to return her jewels and Y5/6 wrote adiary extract as if they were the robber, imagining how he'd broken into the Tower of London to steal the jewels.

After showing their work at the end of the day, three Y5/6 children interviewed Mr Birdsall, the headteacher. A number of strange coincidences had led them to believe that HE might be the thief. And despite his repeated denials, the truth finally came out as his car had been spotted down by the Tower of London on the night in question.

The best reaction of the day was when one of the boys asked Mr Birdsall his shoe size. Y3 had previously found size 8 shoe prints outside the head's office. When Mr B said 'Size 8' there was an audible gasp from the audience. Brilliant!

I'm happy to report that the Queen has decided not to press charges, as long as Mr Birdsall returns the jewels.

It was such fun, made more so by Y5/6's Martha, who at lunch told me: "It's all fake. I'm going to blow this case apart." I'm not sure she did ever 'blow it apart', but I am sure that she had fun.

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Today I spent lunchtime at a Teddy Bear's Picnic, in a woodland near Castleford. The weather was (at times) pretty rubbish, and by 1110, ten minutes after the official start time, there were...wait for it...a grand total of TWO children. However, more and more came to investigate what was going on, and by the time storytime arrived, there were a good number of children of various ages. However, gathering them all together to stay still in one place looked as if it was going to be a challenge. Until nature intervened with a downpour. Everyone rushed to the gazebo, and with some quick thinking we managed to wrap a tarpaulin around the sides. The effect, therefore, was to get all the kids in one, small space, turn everyone's faces blue (the tarp was blue), and have a ready made story area.

And the kids really liked the stories. I was really chuffed with some of the older, 'I'm too cool for this' type kids, who in the end went away with their 'gift' of a teddy bear, proudly clutching it whilst also still trying to look cool. Their love of my stories felt great. One of the most 'cool' dudes piped up suddenly and said 'he' been to my school. He tells mint stories.' And that just made me want to tell him another 'mint' story. Which I did. Masha and the Bear, in fact. A brilliant, Russian based, teddy bear story, with a bear that isn't very teddy like. The children joined in with gusto and we had a brill time.

Once again, I realised how even older children still have a love and a longing inside for stories. Pure and simple, no props, no devices, just stories. And what a privilege to be the one who can give them to these kids. I am LOVING storytelling just now. LOVING it!

Boggarts in the Park; Skeleton ninjas in the cemetery

Day two of my three day visit to the Portecroft family of schools in Sheffield. This morning saw me and 30+ key stage 1 children writing a brand new Boggy Boggart the Bad story. Kids, you were GREAT! Some of the description of the despicable Boggart was fantastic. My particular favourite was Boggy's mouldy cheese bogey's that stuck to his nose. And I loved the idea of a river, leaf and starlight fairies, whose jobs it was to look after the river water, clean the trees' leaves, and make the stars twinkle. Good to see Boggy getting a taste of his own medicine too - he ended up in Fairy Jail in one story!

And this afternoon saw me taking my first trip to the cemetery on Stalker Lee Road (great name for a road bordering a cemetery). It was MASSIVE, as were the tombstones. Sergeant James Grim woul dhave had field day. Thanks to the Portercroft Year 5s who kept us oldies amused with tales of Ninja Skeletons (one with Iron bars in his bones - he was called Rod! and a chicken ninja Skeleton who clucked as he fought! - thanks Callum) until the other school arrived. The poems were superb. My favourite lines had to be...

It was so quiet in the cemetery I could hear...

The trees whispering the secrets of the deceased
Maggots munching the skin of the skeletons
Cells dividing
Shadows creeping behind you

I was so so impressed by everyone's effort and skill in writing these poems. And, as we got rained on from a dizzy height, it was good to head back to school to write up the finished articles. Although please don't show the young ones the final versions - some of the pictures that the kids found are more than a little scary!

Conrad's Magical, Literacy Whistle Stop tour

Yesterday, I saw...wait for it...1700 DIFFERENT pupils, in eight different assemblies, across 6 different sites, in ONE DAY! 1700! That's a ridiculously large number of pupils. And it was fun, exhausting, crazy, wonderful, exhilarating, 'getting there on time...mostly', brilliant and fantastic. It's all been part of the 'let's write together' project organised between Hunters Bar Junior and Infants, Ecclesall Infants and Juniors, Portecroft Primary and Greystones Primary. Thanks to all the children who made me feel so welcome, and thanks especially to Dylan and Maisy - Dylan for giving me the idea of giving Sergeant James Grim the key to the cemetery gates and Maisy for giving me the idea of writing a poem about making fake sick to get the day off school.

Gifted and Talented Youngsters

I've had such a brilliant time with the Gifted and Talented children from Martin Frobisher, Lee Brigg, Normanton Newlands and Normanton Common schools. In two sessions of two hours they have all produced an entire story each - beginning, middle and end with awesome description and plot. I've really been blown away by how well they worked and how much of the time they managed to spend physically writing. Marshall and Pippa, two of the Year 1 children, were brilliant. Lucy's writing was magnificent, but so too were all the others. And some of the other boys really got into it - Toby had some BRILLIANT ideas and read his story well. I'm looking forward to working with the Key Stage 2 children on Thursday, but they've got some work to do to live up to the standard set by the youngsters. Well done everyone!

New Poetry

I've been given a few poems over the last couple of weeks, so have decided to share them here. Well done to all you budding poets!

POETRY IS WOW!

Poetry is wow
Poetry is cool
Poetry is great
Poetry can be wrote at school.

Poetry is Amazing
Poetry is Ace
Poetry is the Best
Poetry can sometimes be a craze

I like poetry
So should you
Nobody hates poetry
Really who?

By Lauren at St Peter's

The Magic Pomegranate

First try of a new story today (apart from when I practised by telling it to my laptop's webcam, but that doesn't really count) and it went REALLY well. Especially with the Year 4s. It's great getting a new story in the bag - another one that I'll be able to draw on in the future. So thanks to everyone at St Peter's for giving me the opportunity to try that one out. Turns out it's a great one to link with Persuasive writing and Stories with Dilemmas.

Streethouse Primray and alternative uses for slides

This is one of my favourite, and most challenging schools. THe reception / nursery class that I worked with on Friday were extremely bubbly, and also really hard work. Liam adopted me after about two seconds, and I could hardly get out of his sights to make my way to the toilet throughout the whole day! Perhaps I should follow his lead in the future - in the afternoon he needed the toilet whilst standing at the top of the slide in the playground. In his mind he must have thought 'why bother going all the way inside?' So he didn't. And the slide got rather wet...

Biggest school ever!!!!!

My first journey to a school in Hull on Thursday last week, and WHAT a school. Loooong, straight corridors stretched into the distance, with classrooms spread out on both sides. When I asked how many children were at the school, I was told by the very helpful Atlanta that there were merely 613 pupils at Eastfield's primary school. 613!!!! Compare that to the modest 56 at Thurstonland First school in Huddersfield. You could fit more than 10 of those schools into Eastfields.

I found it so strange to have driven less than an hour, yet be met with such a different accent. Faaaaive was the new 'five' - it always amazes me how diverse our accents are in this country.

As for the three reception classes that I saw, they were brill. The majority of them were absolutely convinced that they'd seen Sweet pete by the end of the day, and were all chattering about him as they left. Thanks also to the staff who made it such a lovely afternoon, and who promoted my book so kindly on my behalf.

Poet Lucy

Poet Lucy

My name is Lucy
I am a poet
If I didn't tell you
Then you probably won't know it.

I like words that rhyme
And words that are funny
Like flibbity jibbit
And hoppity bunny.

I like poems
As you can see
Maybe one day
You will join me.

By Lucy


Well done Lucy! This is a great poem. Any poem that gets the words 'flibbity jibbit' in it is a good one in my view! Thanks for the poems and keep writing!

Ackworth Poetry Extravaganza

WOW! What a brilliant two days I've just completed at Ackworth Howard school. It's a brilliant place with excellent staff and lively, fun pupils. And we've been doing poetry, poetry, poetry and more poetry. It all culminated in today's final competition in the 'Right Royal Poetry Contest' which was nail biting! The eventual winners were Louis from Class 3 and Douglas from Class 5. I was really chuffed that two boys won it - I always like to see the boys representing when it comes to writing. Their poems were fabulous, and the King and Queen were extremely impressed. As was I!

Thanks everyone at Ackworth - you were great!

John, Jack and a Jamaican Anansi

I tried out a full one hour interactive storytelling session on my Year 6s today - and they LOVED it! First up was 'The Three Sillies' as recounted by Hugh Lupton (whom I also had the pleasure of seeing in action a few weeks ago at York Theatre Royal - he was brilliant), then 'Jack and the Old Giant' and finishing with 'Anansi and the number nine.' I was keen to see if their attention would be held for a full hour, and it pretty much was, apart from the odd shuffling here and there. I was very pleased with the reaction to Jack and the Old Giant, as this is the first time I've ever told it to anyone other than my webcam (I keep having to webcam myself for my mentoring by Gemma from 'Once Upon a Story'). And as for Anansi - the kids LOVED it and they LAUGHED so much at my (admittedly slightly shaky) Jamaican accent.

The afternoon filled me with joy - I really really did have a good time, and once again I realise that stories that are humorous are my kind of story. One thing I also realised - when I do full days of storytelling, I can't be shouting as loud as long as I did in the Anansi story. My voice is fried!

Thanks to Year 6 at St Peter's. They were fab.

I am still here

Well, 4 months into 2011 and you could be forgiven for thinking that I'd dropped off the end of the earth. But thanks to a gentle prompt from Gemma, my storytelling mentor, I'm back writing on my blog. The truth is that actually, due to being very busy in schools, and looking after our three delightful daughters, I've just been rather overrrun with things to do!

I'm very excited to be receiving such ace storytelling training from Gemma. She runs the brilliant company called Once Upon a Story and is a most excellent tutor. And I'm learning more and more about the art of storytelling. Got another training day (actually, two days) down in London in August and I'm really looking forward to that. But before that happens I've got LOTS of schools to visit, to have fun with, and to inspire to write write write!

Yaay, I'm back blogging. Well done me!