But I can only write in the title section, because the blog won't let me write any text. Which is annoying. But I'm back! And if you've looked at my site recently, you might have wondered quite what had happened to me. Busy? Yes! Children to look after? Yes! New poetry book to launch? Yes! But that's all behind me now...so here I am.

I'm Back!!!

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!

Cricket Swimming Madness

So...I DID IT!!!!!! This morning, at 910 am, I walked into Bannatyne's swimming pool area, fully clothed in my cricket kit, climbed into the pool, and swam a mile. A MILE!!!! It was tough, it was crazy, it was uncomfortable, but it was great! £750 raised for the club and counting! This was meant to be my week of relaxing - work finished, children at school and nursery, Christmas shopping done, Christmas on the horizon but not yet here...but thanks to Alice's poorliness and my madness and penchant for doing wacky things, I've instead spent the morning swimming 80 lengths of a pool. Thanks to EVERYONE who sponsored me, and if there are any others reading this who would like to, please email me at conrad.burdekin@sky.com and let me know who you are and how much you'd like to sponsor! Thanks.

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.

Benjamin Zephaniah...Irie Irie!

I visited Ecclesall Juniors last week for National Poetry day. I received an email earlier this week with a great story - the Y6 children from the Junior school were taken to watch Benjamin Zephaniah in action at the Lyceum in Sheffield. I'd have loved to have gone myself, but unfortunately when you have three girls to look after, things like this midweek are rather unattainable. When Mabel's in school...then...then...I'll be able to do it all!

Anyway, Joe, one of the boys who read out a poem in the final school assembly on the day of my visit, also managed to get himself on stage with BZ himself at the Lyceum. Not only that, but he also read out his poem that he'd written during my workshop, got to high five BZ, and was the recipient of much whooping and hollering from his classmates. Irie! Well done Joe, that's awesome. To have the approval of the great Ben Zeph, now that IS something to shout about.

I also suspect, (though have no proof to corroborate this 'fact' as I was not there), that the Ecclesall bunch, with their Benjamin Zephaniah hats, were by far the coolest kids there. I'll leave it to you to agree or disagree. Like I say, I wasn't there...