Illness and hotels

Since the beginning of this term in September, I have been the ONLY member of our household not to be poorly. The litany of unwell Burdekins stands so far at...

Alice (twice) - fever followed by impegigo
Violet (once) - fever and vomiting
Mabel (once but for a WHOLE week) - fever, sore tummy, sore throat, vomiting and EXTREME grumpiness
Clare (twice) fever, tiredness, vomiting, tiredness, sore tummy, tiredness...

In the middle of it all I wrote a new poem called 'New Terms New Germs,' inspired by Violet's brilliant class 1 teacher, Mrs Preston, who uses that phrase to explain the repeated absence of children from her classroom at the start of a new term. Only problem is that our family's poorliness lasted across the first half term and into the second. Only now does everyone seem to be getting back to full health, and, consequently, only now do I find that I have the relative luxury of time to write a blog entry! So...where have I been...

Longford Primary in Stafford to do a poetry day - the children there were AWESOME doing some great performance poetry. Long drive for me, but worth it as the children were great.

Morley Lit Fest - the Morley library and staff were brilliant, the lady in the car park opposite not QUITE so brilliant as she ripped me to shreds regarding parking illegally. I smiled, nodded, almost exploded, declined her (rather spitefully given) offer of a cup of coffee, and drove away.

Altofts gifted and talented writing day - this was a BLAST! The children from the 6 schools who arrived at Altofts were great. The only sour note of the day was the vomiting child at the entrance just as they were ready to leave. And it was a very SOUR note, if you get my meaning (curdled milk etc.etc.!)

Ryecroft Academy - what a great school, led under the able stewardship of Mrs Clarke. This school is making HUGE strides to improve the children's levels and general school experience, and I'm lucky enough to be one of the people invited to help with this. My favourite moment so far? The Year 6 group writing a story about a banana who has a sore nose due to his habit of sneezing yellowed banana snot all over the place.

Thornhill Lees - somewhere I've been each of the last three or four years and somewhere I always like to travel back to. Very accommodating and very happy, smily children.

Pikemere Primary - Cheshire - this was my first ever 'overnight stay' in a lovely hotel / pub nearby. I didn't fancy the two hour drive up the M6 / M62 / M60 / M62 only to turn around and set off at 530 the following morning to go back to school. So Clare happily agreed that I should stay local. And I did. And what a great evening. Cinema to see Taken 2 (brilliant), then a meal at the hotel pub (even more brilliant), then a full night's sleep, childfree (even more brillianter than everything else that was brilliant before!)

Following on from all that I've played golf at a stag do, taught newly qualified teachers how to inspire children to write and how to get them storytelling, written stories with Year 2 children about cheeky monkeys, taken part in the Kids Lit Challenge 2012 (WHAT an eyeopener), attended the Ossett Christmas Fair at South Ossett Church (and Katy - Jo, if I can find your poem, I PROMISE I will post it here), and today had a stall at my girls' school Christmas fair at Stanley St Peters. Which is where I'm going to finish, by publishing Leon's winning poetry competition poem. Well done Leon, I really like this, especially the last line. Here goes...

The Tornado

There was a tornado at the park
Today, so all the dogs said "bark"
There was a tornado at the park
Today
Twisting, turning,
Forever
Whirling


Well done Leon, great poem! And enjoy the sweets...

I also really enjoyed Jay's poem. Jay, who is in the same class as Leon at school, came very close to winning...

It

It is worser than a UFO
A ten armed octopus
Or being chased down the road
By a runaway bus
It is unimaginable
It is...

My mum on a bad hair day!


This made me laugh A LOT when I read it!

Phew! That's about it.