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.

A Special Visit to Donisthorpe Primary School, Swadlincote

On Wednesday Ian and I travelled from Preston to Tamworth where we were meeting Charlotte.  We were fortunate that our trains were on time but poor Charlotte was at the mercy of signal problems and then a missing train driver.  At least here in the UK the train companies tell you exactly what's the matter - later in the week we were delayed because of trespassers on the tracks.  After some anxious moments, Charlotte ended up making it in time for us to go to the school together.  It was lovely to see her again.



The reason we were going to Donisthorpe Primary in Swadlincote is that two of the girls in Year 6, Holly and Paige had won a writing competition with a magazine and their prize was for an author to visit their school.  I had the pleasure of talking to the whole school before spending about 45 minutes with the Year 6 class talking about writing and giving them some short activities.  It was great to see children who initially said that they didn't enjoy writing particularly much, sharing their work so enthusiastically.  We had some funny false starts with the drama when the boy wearing the wig leaned back and it fell off his head exposing his bald head well before the punch line.  Then he refused to snore so the guy behind the chair is a snoring double.  At least the children roared with laughter.

Swadlincote is a beautiful little village amid rolling green fields and picture postcard cottages.  I would have loved to have spent more time there- the afternoon was over all too soon and we had to catch two trains to Shrewsbury.  Our taxi driver apparently thought he was Jensen Button - overtaking everyone in sight.  We were all relieved to make it to the station in one piece.

We had a far less exciting ride to Shrewsbury and then a lovely lady taxi driver took us to Oswestry.  Ian and I spent a lot of time in Oswestry when we were here last year.  It's the home of Brogyntyn Hall - the house that inspired Caledonia Manor in the Alice-Miranda series.  I was very excited to be working with Carrie from Booka Bookshop - which has to be one of the most beautiful independent bookshops in the whole country.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner with Charlotte in the hotel restaurant.  There was a long table laid for dinner and when I enquired with the waitress about the big group she told us that it was for a shooting party.  The hunters arrived just as we were finishing our meal.  There was one fellow carrying about four rifles, they were dressed in tweeds and were in a very ebullient mood.  It was such a quintessential English scene.

A day with Elaine from SilverDell Books at West End Primary Ormskirk and Willows Primary Kirkham

On Tuesday morning we caught a taxi from the hotel to West End Primary in Ormskirk.  It's great to see so much of the countryside and the drive across a raised road with fields either side was very pretty.  We saw a pheasant too.  West End is a small village school.  We were joined by students from another local school just around the corner called Asmall Primary.  Ormskirk has a university which I believe specialised for many years in teacher training.  I think there must have been a group of student teachers in my session but I never got to find out exactly who they were. 

I'd really been looking forward to seeing Elaine from SilverDell Books again.  We worked with her in February and she is fabulous.  Her events are legendary and she's about to host an event for Sir Alex Ferguson this coming Thursday. 

We headed to the shop for a bite of lunch and an ice cream (the shop has an ice cream parlour and Elaine makes the most delicious home made ice creams).  I had fudge - yum!  The next school, Willows Primary was just down the road.  The children were very enthusiastic too.  I really enjoyed their lively responses and the children I selected for the drama were fab.  We had a role reversal with one of the girls, Stevie playing Floyd Sparks and one of the boys, Joe (I think that was his name - please accept my apologies if I have that wrong) playing Clementine.  The children roared laughing and the actors did the most wonderful job.

Elaine kindly drove us back to the hotel via the station, where Jasmine left us to return to London.  We were staying at the Preston Marriott.  Elaine had time for a coffee and we started to plan a much bigger tour of the North West for next year. 

The Fijian Rugby League team were staying at the hotel too.  The team was heading out while Ian and I were having dinner - we marvelled at their lack of clothing with some in shorts and t-shirts and thongs (which I know gets lost in translation here!  I mean flip flops but in Australia flip flops are called thongs).  When we were telling Charlotte about them the next day she fell about laughing - I soon realised my mistake :).

Our Lady of Compassion, Formby and Forefield Junior School, Crosby - the start of the North West Tour

Monday saw us leave London early to catch the train to Preston.  Jasmine joined us as we headed off from Euston Station on one of the Virgin very fast trains.  It's an impressive service and probably my most favourite of the train companies we've travelled on in the UK.  We were met at the station by Tony Higginson from Formby Books.  Our car journey took us past some marshlands and a long jetty to an area I'd not visited before.  Formby is quite close to Liverpool - so I was expecting some interesting accents and the children didn't disappoint.

The first school on the itinerary was Our Lady of Compassion RC Primary in Formby.  We encountered a small hitch with the technology as the version of PPT on the computer was not compatible with my presentation.  Thankfully Ian was there to fix it and after a little while the problem was solved.  I don't mind doing the presentation without the PPT but I think for children it adds another dimension - particularly for those visual learners.

The children were very enthusiastic and keen to ask and answer questions.  I was thrilled with the participation from the boys and there was a gorgeous little fellow called Stanley who was more than willing to help with some drama - taking the role of Jacinta in her very first meeting with Alice-Miranda.  I was thrilled to see Stanley and his little sister and brother later on at the shop when quite a lot of the children came for the book signing after school.

We ventured from Formby to a school called Forefield Junior School in Crosby.  The Head Teacher Mr Ron Naylor was so enthusiastic about reading and books - the library is right in the centre of the school as you walk through the doors.  He played a fantastic reading song (to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling) as the students came into the hall and it was clear from the outset that these children loved stories.

I had a great time talking to them and their participation in the drama was terrific.  Ron showed me the way that books are integrated across the curriculum.  The classrooms were dynamic with wonderful displays and the children's workbooks were exemplary.

Ian found a poster for me to sign - Ron has a lovely array of signed posters from famous British writers.  I'm thrilled to be able to join them on the library walls.  The picture below is of the staff at the school dressed up for World Book Day.  Now that is one impressive group of book characters!

After school Tony drove us to his shop where I was doing a signing for the children from Our Lady of Compassion.  It's always a thrill when a child bounds into the shop eager for a book.

Tony drove us to our accommodation at Formby Golf and Spa, a lovely resort on the edge of town where we had a delicious dinner and an early night (and a brush with death when the heavy metal surround from the down light right above the toilet came crashing down taking the entire inside workings with it - just a few minutes after I'd been sitting right there.  It could have been awful but it wasn't - just scared the living daylights out of me with the noise).  I must say the reaction from the girl at reception was less than stellar - she looked at Ian and said, 'Oh really.  I'll have to get housekeeping to take a look.'  He did comment that it was the light from right over the toilet and that it was dangerous  - but never mind, no lives were lost.