View from the School Coordinator In September, 25 Year 12 students volunteered to become Book Club Leaders. After a short training session, the students were provided with the books and resources and the discussion questions for each week. Working with the Head of English, we decided...
When did you first know you were a writer? For as long as I can remember I’ve always enjoyed listening to other people’s stories. My grandmother was a fantastic storyteller and my mother wrote short stories for one of the first women’s magazines in Ghana. I...
There are big stories and small stories, happy ones and sad, but this month What to Read Now is focused on some of the most important (and award-winning) stories. The chosen three celebrate the unlimited diversity of our world and explore themes of bravery, overcoming...
When did you first know you were a writer? I think I was around 9 years old. I started a book about a girl who rescued horses and I was utterly transported into another world - a world that I was in control of! I loved...
Empathy is one of those qualities that is so drastically important, and yet all too often overlooked. As Alfred Alder once so beautifully put it, ‘Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of...
Empathy Day was established with the intention of using stories to encourage empathy among children. To me, this makes perfect sense. At a time when social media allows us to live in bubbles that reinforce our own certainties, the ability to empathise with experiences that...
J.K. Rowling hit the nail on the head when she said: ‘If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book’. If a child is reluctant to read, all that they really need is a helping hand when it comes to selecting a...
Can you tell us a little bit about your background as a librarian and how it motivated you to become a children's author? After completing my studies at the university of Sussex I hit the road travelling around festivals singing, performing a storytelling with a creative arts...
I had lunch with a writing friend a few weeks ago. She said I had once told her: “I don’t have writer’s block, I have life block.” I’ve had people misquote me before - sometimes horrifyingly so. But as it happens, my friend was spot on. I...
There is a proven link between low literacy levels and poverty. Children eligible for free school meals are less likely than their more affluent peers to read well. And this lack of basic literacy skills is a primary cause of these children remaining in poverty as adults, with...