Schools
School Visits
I offer both author talks and group workshops at my school events. Typically, my visits are aimed towards primary school children in key stage two. Below is a rough outline of what I provide, but I can be flexible with timings and content if there is anything you’d specifically like me to focus on. Don’t hesitate to contact me for more information.
Author Talks
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My author talks are around 30-45 minutes long with time for questions at the end and are suitable for large groups of primary school children.
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In my presentation I will discuss my background, why I became an author, where I get my inspirations from and my top writing tips!
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Having been a teacher myself, I appreciate the need to make it as interactive as possible so I include drama elements and games too.
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I’ll read from some of my books with the help of some brave volunteers from the audience!
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My aim is to encourage more children to read and maybe even inspire some of my audience to start writing stories of their own!
Workshops
In my group sessions, I delve into more detail about being a writer and how to carefully choose your characters, settings and plot.
Cool Characters Session
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Suitable for years 3-6
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Class of 32 or smaller
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30-45 minutes in length
In this session, I discuss my characters from my Classroom Misfits and In for a Penny book series and show the children the importance of character selection. From appearance, to personality, even to name, I hope to demonstrate to the children that thinking carefully about characters is fundamental to the success of a story. They will have the opportunity to come up with characters of their own and put them into scenarios. Hopefully, by the end of the session, the children will have a new appreciation for the role of characters in books and how important they are in making stories believable and engaging.
Dangerous Detectives Session
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Best for years 3/4
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Class of 32 or smaller
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30-45 minutes in length
In this session, using The Classroom Misfits as a starting point, we delve into detective stories aimed at younger children. We will discuss possible crimes and reasons. Also, we will talk about the need for suspicious characters to keep the reader guessing. As well as this, we will explore how the main characters in books use clues to solve the mystery. Together, we will come up with our own detective story based on all of these elements.
Marvellous Murder Mysteries Session (Author's favourite)
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Best for years 5/6
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Class of 32 or smaller
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30-45 minutes in length
In this session, we talk about writing murder mystery stories and why I find them so engaging and appealing. The children will have a go at being detectives themselves by solving a quick case at the start of the session. We will then go on to break down a murder mystery story and the key elements to include. We will talk about things like motives, suspects and ‘red herrings’ and create a brand new mystery as a class. We will also discuss the idea of plot twists and how to write these in order to surprise the readers and make a story even better! They can then turn this into a real story at home or in class at a future time.
