Long Drive to Longford!

My first ever school in Staffordshire! Longford Primary turns out to be quite a way away for me...well over 100 miles, and over 2 hours of driving, which at 545 on a cold, dark, wet autumnal morning is not my IDEAL way to start a day.

However, it was VERY worth it. The children and staff were brilliant - made me feel exceptionally welcome and we had a blast. We were celebrating national Poetry Day (a day late!), and I'd been asked to work primarily with KS2 children on performance poetry. No problem, I thought. I'll get them all to perform some of my poems in groups...done that before...worked well...

Then, as I was about to launch into the first session with Y3, I suddenly thought 'Oh, I've not done this with a Y3 group before...hmmmm...will they be ok with it...?' And my goodness they were! In fact, the winning group were really close to winning the whole thing, just getting pipped at the post by Year 6's performance of a new poem of mine called 'New Term, New Germs.'

I was also ably supported throughout the day by Mrs Hume - I think that without teaching assistants like her, schools would fall apart in very short order.

Thanks to all at Longford, and here's hoping we meet again. And next time maybe I'll understand a few more words that the children say...cos that accent foxed me on a number of occasions!

Guns 'n' Roses at Ecclesall Juniors!

Last year I went to Ecclesall Junior school for National Poetry day, and my abiding memory was listening to one of the year groups singing the Matchstalk Men song about Lowry. I could not get it out of my head, came home, and spent two hours researching Lowry, the song, and a host of things that were most definitely NOT the planning that I should have been doing. All to a backdrop of the song on my computer on repeat.

So...as I headed of to Ecclesall Juniors today, once again on National Poetry Day, I couldn't help but hum the Matchstalk Men song as I had last year. There was no chance that I'd be so taken with something today in the way I was last year. No chance at all. Not a hope...

Until, of course, I walked into an empty hall to be greeted with 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'n' Roses...on repeat...loud!

So now THAT's what I can't get out of my head. Brilliant! Reminds me of my brother when he was young, listening to that song all the time. I don't know of any other junior school that would have G'n'R blaring out first thing on a morning, and I say WELL DONE! DO MORE!

And what I day we had. I absolutely LOVE this school. Everyone is just lovely lovely lovely! And the children came up with some amazing poetry. Not least, Gina, from Year 3, who'd written a poem the night BEFORE my visit as she got ready to celebrate National Poetry Day. So...here it is, linking in very nicely with the theme for this year's poetry day, which is STARS...

Gina, over to you...

My first shooting star

Bored and frustrated, sitting on my bed
See the curtains - an idea in my head
Rip them open, gaze out far
To my joy a shooting star!


I read it out to the school and they were suitably impressed. As was I! Well done Gina, keep writing 'em.

I was also given a poem by Megan in Year 6...not a star poem, this one, but one that is very topical around this time of the year...So Megan, take it away...

Halloween

Halloween's the time of ghosts and ghouls,
Pumpkins in windows grin like fools
When warlocks and witches meet,
Children go out to trick or treat
Some people do apple bobbing
While the spirits are wailing and sobbing
At the middle of the night,
You can get a fright


Brilliant, Megan, well done.

There were so many excellent poems today. Joe's kenning was awesome, Fraser and Oscar's poem about Teachers vs Aliens was a delight, and so so many more. As I watched all the children filing in to the final assembly I was filled with a real joy, one that I could feel deep inside, and could feel emanating from the children too.

Thank you Ecclesall, you've been great.

Now, what date is National Poetry Day 2013...?!!!

A VERY secret Secret Diary...

My secret diary is so secret that even I haven't been able to find it for a while...which would explain why I've not posted for a little while...

But I am still alive and still working in schools...lots of them.

I just haven't written about them.

But I have been to them.

Which is probably the best way round to be, if I had to choose. Because writing about my visits but not actually DOING the visits would land me in some hot water with head teachers across Yorskhire. Plus, it'd be pretty hard to write about a visit that I didn't actually make. If you see what I mean. Which you might not. Which is ok. It happens, farily frequently.

Anyway, here is my 'off the top of my head list' of what I've been up to...

1. Bought the entire series of 'Quantum Leap' on DVD last week with birthday money. Has there ever been money spent more wisely?

2. Ran a 'Boys 'n' Blokes' day, followed by a 'Girls 'n' Gals' Day at All Saints Infant School, Normanton on consecutive Mondays recently. What a great time we had, and how much the children made me laugh. Their comments on the feedback forms were priceless. Top of the list of suggested improvements was 'More Marshmellows next time' after the marshmellows for the hot chocolate at break time ran out!

3. Ran a three day writing event for the Juniors at Hallam Primary in Sheffield, where I'd been earlier this year in March. What a wonderful bunch of people they are down there - and to Hilary, the Year 6 TA, a huuuuge thank you and 'how did you DO that?' for creating a display so quickly I saw pictures of me doing stuff that I'd literally been doing only five minutes earlier. And as for the dragon...he hasn't got me yet!

4. Tidied out the cellar. This sounds like a job that might take a morning. It took Clare and I three weeks and ended up involving things like ditching nine bin bags full of baby clothes at the charity shop; emptying our wardrobes; booking in David, the best decorator in the North; and throwing away A LOT of stuff into a rather large skip. Good for the soul it was.

5. Got poorly TWICE leading up to and including the summer holidays, and missed TWO days of work - first time I've missed work since becoming self employed over six years ago. That's how bad I was. It was not pretty.

There is more, but I'm tired and so that's where it's going to finish. I would talk about the INCREDIBLE summer we've had...not weather-wise, you understand, but sporting superstar - wise. Ryder Cup team - a brilliant way to end off a sporting summer the like of which I truly believe I will never again see in my lifetime.

Goodnight one and all.

P.S. Oh, I should also mention that Poetry book number 3 is being written, and short story collection number one is being put together. Exciting times...

GSAL Visit

What a brilliant week I had last week at the Grammar School at Leeds. This is the second time I've worked with the Junior School, but whereas last time I visited for five separate days right across a month, this time I was there for a full week Monday to Friday. And it really made a difference. By Friday I felt that I was part of the furniture! The children were amazing, and so engaged in what I asked them to do. And the staff were brill - cakes, coffee, crosswords in the staffroom, and really involved in the workshops that I ran. GSAL is an extremely welcoming school, and one that I'd love to return to. They also seemed to like my book, judging by the amount of people wandering up to my hastily arranged 'bookstall' in the playground on Friday afternoon. My favourite (and most bizarre!) moment of the week was when I asked some of the children to write a Riddle about a sporting object. I read out a couple of mine and asked the children to guess what object I'd written about. Guesses included such things as 'shuttlecock' , 'cricket ball, 'football.' Then one lad at the front put up his hand. 'Yes?' I asked. 'Squirrel,' said the young man, confidently. 'Pardon?' I replied, I thought you said squirrel.' 'I did,' said the boy. 'It's a squirrel.' That led to a rather interesting discussion about where and how you might find a sport that involved a squirrel as a sporting object!

Waterstones and Poetry Competition

Last Saturday I spent a couple of hours in Waterstones at Wakefield, selling copies of both of my poetry books. I also ran a poetry competition. The entries were great, and it's taken me a while to pick a winner...not only that, but the prize that was going to be sent out has been eaten by my wife! 'I didn't realise that it was for some kids!' she explained. So I think I'll be taking a trip to the shops to buy something else shortly...

So...the winning entry is a great limerick by Lauren, age 8. Well done Lauren! Your prize will be with you when I've bought it (and assuming that I can keep it away from my wife!).

Here's the poem...

Mr Burdekin, I think you came to my school
We thought your poems were pretty cool
So imagine my shock
When I walked in this shop
And saw you sitting there on a stool! (still cool)

By Lauren, aged 8


Well done Lauren. This poem made both me and my twin brother laugh, and when a poem can make you laugh out loud, it's definitely a good one!

I'm going to be at Waterstones in Leeds today, so let's see if anybody can match Lauren's poem there.

Sheffield Sheffield Sheffield

All of a sudden, I feel like I've moved semi-permanently into Sheffield! I've been to a number of Sheffield schools recently, and am currently in the middle of a 3 day visit to Hallam Primary. Lovely school and lots of fun with the children there, but my goodness, WHAT a journey home tonight. Took me almost three hours to do a 1 hour journey. Seemed like wherever I went there were closed roads, roadworks, etc.etc. I ended up at the top of a hill looking out over the city not having a clue where I was!

Busy Busy Busy

So busy at the moment! I think I've had to turn down 6 or 7 schools recently, cos just no room. March truly is the busiest month of the year for me. But lots of fun within that busy-ness. Yesterday was brill dressing up as a pirate and joining the staff and pupils up at Ackworth Howard School. Mr Smith as Where's Wally was very amusing. Every time the staff needed to know something, someone said 'Ask Wally'.

And today, Stradbroke Primary in Sheffield had World Book Day a day late, as they do every year, so that the hyped up, energetic children can go home and deflate slowly for the weekend. Good plan I reckon! It's a large school (very large, actually), and therefore the full assembly hall this afternoon was an array of colour as 100s of children had transformed into book characters. Highlights of the day for me was Mrs Shelley's Smelly Wellies (brilliant work Reception), Lucy Cutts' written story (ALL her own work - another bit of genius from the 5s and under), and the story of tweety, the bird who loved Fish and Chips.

The diary tells me that 19 events to go before our end of month holiday to Spain. Take a deep breath, Con, take a deep breath...