Brilliant poetry from Dyson...and I don't mean the Vacuum Cleaner!

Halfway Nursery Infant School is ALWAYS a lovely place to go - the atmosphere amongst pupils and staff is truly lovely - corridors full of happy, smiling characters. So I knew I'd have a good day there today. But the most special part of the day was meeting Jacob, in the Hungry Caterpillars. Jacob had, of his own accord (with mum's permission) written me an email a few weeks ago to say he was looking forward to my visit. He then sent me the following poem, written COMPLETELY by him...


there was a man who lived in a pan .


and he cooled himself down with a fan.

he got out of bed and jumped up to the moon.
and landed back in the pan!


Sounds to me like the man in the pan was having a pretty adventurous day! And so, Jacob, I say KEEP WRITING!

And I'll keep reading.

I am a scary cat

Well, the New Year is here, the snow is falling, and, after a WONDERFUL Christmas break, I'm back in schools with a bang. It's full throttle from here to Easter. And, when work stretches ahead of you like an apparently undending road, you need some levity to lighten your load. Which is exactly what I got when I visited St Paul's Alverthorpe this morning. I'd been in last Thursday to visit Early Years and Year 1 and Year 2. This morning I was back to see the older children. I was passed a bundle of thank you cards made for me by Mrs Hayton's class. And they were just awesome. But two stood out for me, so much so that I read them out to the Key Stage 2 children this morning, and am now publishing them here.

Dear Conrad,

This is a story for you...

Once Conrad went to school and they wanted to marry him and they kissed him.




Brilliant card, don't you agree! But my personal favourite is this one...

To Crorab (!)

I am a scary cat

Love from





Amazing! It really made me laugh. Surely noone has ever had a thank you card like it? So thank you to whoever wrote that card (name was cunningly withheld). It made my day!