Author and Illustrator Visits and Workshops

Children have the opportunity to meet and talk to a range of authors and illustrators as part of our Aspire Programme. This not only helps develop their love of writing, language and reading but also shows them what is possible for themselves in later life if their
follow their passions. 

In some cases, the authors have worked with our children to edit and improve their writing, providing them with personalised feedback. They showed great pride and determination whilst collaborating with others to raise the standard of writing.

 Sometimes this involves participating in online interactive workshops, but also inviting people into school to enhance our writing curriculum. Here is an example where a real author/poet - Seni Seneviratne – first shared with our pupils her life experiences, memories and family connections to World War Two. Following this, she gave the pupils an insight into her career progression and inspirations for becoming a writer. Seni then explicitly spoke to the children about the writing process for her books and exemplified the importance of editing and redrafting being a significant part of her success. The children then had the opportunity to share their World War Two poems in the session and receive timely, purposeful, highly-effective, professional feedback on what worked well and how their writing could have a greater impact on the reader. The pupils were proud of their final achievements and were extremely enthusiastic to publish their final poems for a parent exhibition. This is an example of a writing unit work, which closely matches our school values and enhances not only our pupils’ short-term writing ability and motivation - but also their awareness of how they could have an impact on the wider community as well as their own potential career development.