The Bishop's Primary School Chelmsford, Royal Masonic Cadogan House, St Helen's, North London Collegiate School and Danes Hill - what an end to the tour!

We spent the first part of this week in St Alban's which was a real treat.  Unexpected in many ways and a place I very much hope to go back to.  On Monday evening Ian and I had dinner with Nikki Gamble from Just Imagine and her lovely husband Neil in a gorgeous pub just north of Chelmsford.  We ventured out in the afternoon for a drive and ended up in Thaxted, a beautiful village with some fantastic ancient buildings.  Many of the village houses are painted in pale colours, a veritable rainbow of pastels.  The Guildhall is very interesting and looks as if the top might topple off and the Alms Houses beside the church are so well preserved.
We didn't have a lot of time there as it was getting dark and we were keen to find our way to The Compasses at Littley Green.  It proved slightly more challenging than we imagined, as the address was a little vague and we wound up at the wrong end of the road.  A phone call to the pub saw us back on track, although when we arrived the place was shrouded in darkness.  As we tried the front door a head popped out of an upstairs window and the chap asked if we were the people who'd just called.  It was about 5.10pm and the pub wasn't due to open until 5.30pm but as it was freezing and he was expecting some guests to check into the accommodation, he'd come down and open up for us.  The pub was warm and cosy with low beams and that look of a much loved place.

It wasn't long before locals began to arrive and Ian and I had a great time chatting with a number of them.  I think we were a bit of a fascination being from Australia.  We met a friendly chap called Martin who runs an eco cab company with Smart Cars and Prius vehicles.  Apparently he does a booming trade in Smart Car runs from Cambridge to Heathrow with single passengers.

Nikki and Neil arrived and we had a wonderful time chatting about this and that - lots about education and books and teaching reading (and teaching trainee teachers about teaching reading).  Nikki is an amazing woman with a passion for her work and a deep understanding of her profession.  Drinks continued to dinner and in no time it was after 9.30pm and time to get a move on back to St Albans.

The following day we left early for a school visit at The Bishop's Primary School in Chelmsford where two teachers I had met at Just Imagine worked.  It was great to see Stephen and Helen again and meet the students in Years 3 and 4.  The children were a very enthusiastic audience.  Sam from Just Imagine looked after the book sales (she looks just like my dad's sister Aunty Terry).  It was a great morning and I loved every minute.

 

The following day we had two events; a morning at Royal Masonic Cadogan House working with the Year 4 girls and the afternoon at St Helen's school.  Shirley Drummond at Cadogan House is one of those truly inspiring teachers.  The work she had done with her Year 2 students since my earlier visit was amazing.  The girls had written fantastic stories inspired by Clementine Rose and the Pet Day Disaster and during a little break from Year 4 I popped in and said hello to them.  The looks on their faces were priceless and they talked animatedly about their stories and showed them off. If I can work out how to make the pictures stay the right way around I will add some close ups of their work asap.  The Year 4 girls worked so hard - their enthusiasm was unwavering.  I was chatting with one of the Year 4 teachers, Eva Helm at morning tea time and mentioned that I had worked at Abbotsleigh in Australia.  Eva looked at me and said, 'in Wahroonga'.  Yes, I nodded.  It turned out that when I arrived at the school midway through 2001, Eva Phillips, as she was then known was one of our Junior School Gap Girls.  We had a wonderful time reminiscing about all the people she knew - Rosalie Geddes, Margaret Duke, Lesley Forbes, Merle Green and Murray Keating to name a few.  Of course June Brown too.  Eva is now married with a baby daughter - I know the Abbotsleigh connections will be thrilled to hear about her life now.

We spent the afternoon with Sheryl from Chorleywood Bookshop at another lovely school St Helen's.  Librarian Elizabeth greeted us at the office and I was thrilled by the warm reception from the girls and staff.  It was a fun afternoon and I signed books for ages afterwards.

Thursday was a late start - which I was really glad of.  We headed to North London Collegiate School to meet the Year 3 girls.  Another smart group with lots of questions and perceptive answers.  It was a pleasure to meet them and their lovely librarian Sarah. 

We had packed up our chattels and drove down to Surrey last night.  We're staying at a gorgeous old mansion called Woodlands Park Hotel.  It was first built as a private home but over it's 119 year history has seen different uses including an aged care facility and educational centre.  As a private house in it's heyday, King Edward VII was a frequent visitor. 

This morning I headed over to Dane's Hill.  The largest independent Prep School in the UK, I've developed a lovely connection to the school through Jan Firkin.  I had the pleasure of working with the students from Year 2-5 today and their enthusiasm was fantastic.  I can't wait to see their writing and hope to post some on the blog too.

So we've now come to the end of the official tour. Two countries and almost 6 weeks later I've just tallied things up. 27 schools, 52 sessions, 3 newspaper articles, an interview with BBC Radio Europe (yet to air), an interview with Nikki Gamble from Just Imagine, a visit to the stunning Seven Stories in Newcastle Upon Tyne, finished editing Clementine Rose and the Seaside Escape, finished up the page proofs for Alice-Miranda in Japan, developed the new storyline for AM 10 and been in more bookshops than I can remember. Visited new places and met many wonderful people. Caught up with friends and made new ones. Also eaten too much and exercised too little! But that is about to be remedied. We're off to Portugal for a golfing holiday tomorrow - where I will endeavour to eat less and exercise more, read, relax and reflect on how fortunate I am to be doing something I love.

Two great days at Danes Hill, Oxshott, Surrey

Danes Hill School in Oxshott Surrey is one of those places out of a storybook.  With beautiful buildings dating back hundreds of years, bright eyed children in the sweetest uniforms, rolling green playing fields and their very own woods, the school is quite literally the rural idyll so often talked about here in Britain.  The adventure playground is fantastic too with a flying fox and all manner of activities to challenge the most active primary school children.  

My visit came about through a teacher who started with us at Abbotsleigh this year straight from several years at Danes Hill.  When I contacted the acting librarian, as fate would have it, Janet Firkin is Australian and her daughter Edith is actually on the list to come to Abbotsleigh later in her school career.  Serendipitous to say the least.  After many months of emails it was wonderful to meet Janet and Edith in person - who are just as fantastic as I had imagined!  I had been looking forward to visiting Danes Hill for so long.

Our first afternoon was spent talking to the Middle School (Years 4 and 5) students in their auditorium.  They were fantastic fun despite the fact that the auditorium was rather warm.  Drama is a key subject at Danes Hill so I was eager to see their acting skills and they didn’t disappoint.  The session was followed by a meeting with the Headmaster Willie Murdock and a tour around the school with the registrar, Caroline Ward.  The school has around 800 students, 600 of whom are on the campus we visited.  The other 200 are younger.  The facilities are excellent although I have to say that the classrooms are much smaller than most in Australia.  The Year 3 teachers particularly do an amazing job in a very tiny space.

The school day is long too.  Classes commence at 8.20am and finish around 4.00pm with some of the older students continuing through until 4.30pm. 

The grounds are magnificent with over 50 acres, an outdoor heated pool over which they put a tent affair in the winter so they can keep on using it, am astro turf hockey pitch and several cricket pitches too.  It’s interesting the way that independent schools here frequently go to Year 8 (our Year 7) and then the students have to go on to other places.  School finishes at Year 13.

On Tuesday evening Janet had organized a function with the parents and teachers.  Drinks and canapés followed by a talk from me.  It was wonderful to have this opportunity to speak to the ‘grown ups’ if you like and answer their questions too.  One of the dads bought along his little girl in Year 2 who had already read Alice-Miranda and bravely asked her questions in front of the adults too.  We met in the library (which is beautiful – completely jam packed with books from the carpeted floor to the intricate plaster ceiling and with a lovely open fire).  There were about 30 people in all and I had a ball talking about Australia, education, Alice-Miranda, reading strategies and the tour in general.

We stayed at the lovely Woodlands Park Hotel in Cobham.  Once an historic home, where apparently Edward VII used to bring his mistress, the hotel has undergone a complete refurbishment.  The rooms are very comfortable and for an English hotel the bathroom was huge.  Although some of the workmanship didn’t pass my test – I think the electrician must have had one eye and a leg seriously shorter than the other with some of the interesting angles on the light switches!  Clearly he didn't own a spirit level!

 The food in the restaurant was delicious and the service excellent.

On our second day at Danes Hill I had another opportunity to speak to the Middle School Assembly and expand on some writing tips.

 The Middle School students had done some ‘optional’ homework the previous evening to develop a villain and introduce them into a story.  I was really thrilled with how many children took up the challenge and read some excerpts to the assembly.

The assembly was very similar to back home starting with a hymn, ‘Give Me Oil In My Lamp’ which is also an Abbotsleigh favourite, then moving on in the latter part to awards.  I was asked to shake the children’s hands and did so with pleasure.

Afterwards I then spoke to Year 2 and 3 in separate groups.  These are equivalent to our Australian Year 1 and 2 classes.  Their acting skills were amazing and one of the girls stood there trying to placate the tantrum thrower by saying nothing, extending her arms and waving her hands back and forth like windscreen wipers.  The group was in stitches.

We then had lunch in the boardroom with Sarah Bingham (Head of Year 3), Helen Derbyshire (Head of Year 2), Angie Lack (Head of Lower School), Elizabeth Loubser ( Head of Middle School ) and of course Janet.  The food is amazing – restaurant quality and the children and teachers eat together every day.

We felt thoroughly spoilt as we left with a treasure trove of Michael Morpurgo books.  Janet dropped another great surprise into the hotel too - a jar of Vegemite (for Ian who had spoken with her about how much he was missing it on his toast in the mornings!).  It has been eagerly opened, smelt and savoured.

That afternoon we caught a taxi into the village of Cobham which is gorgeous.  I dropped in to say hello at the Cobham Bookshop, which has a great range of children’s books.  While Ian was having a haircut I had a walk around the village and came to the conclusion that the main industry was definitely real estate – and hugely expensive real estate at that.  Cobham is home to the Chelsea Football Club, so there was no shortage of flashy sports cars and yummy mummies in Range Rovers either.

I took a spin through the local Sainsbury’s and was impressed that they have portable scanners so you can keep track of your shopping – I haven’t seen that at home yet.

The staff at Danes Hill are keen to make some links with the staff and students at Abbotsleigh – I’m sure we could have some wonderful exchanges and look forward to this in the future.  I’ll definitely be heading back again on the next visit.