Well we’ve been busy again visiting schools and libraries (when aren’t we?). We’ve seen THOUSANDS of students across the UK and now we’re back at our desks doing some writing.
So, where have we been? Glad you asked, because we’re going to tell you!
We began the New Year with two days at Swithland Primary School in Leicestershire, where we continued our writing workshops with the students.
The key stage 1 pupils loved working on our Fridge Monster book and the teacher even brought in a fridge in which to put their monsters!
The following week saw us in Corwen to Caer Drywen for more writing workshops. The snow came down and the wind blew! So much so that our hotel driveway was blocked by a huge tree, which had come down in the storm.
We then headed up the valley to our Patron of Reading School, Ysgol Cystennin, where they’d just finished their Estyn inspection (and they received a fab report!). Well done!
Next day we revisited St Elfod in Abergele for a fun packed day before heading back for a well deserved weekend break.
Wigan was our next port of call for two days writing workshops at Beech Hill Primary before we set off to the west to Pembrokeshire for a great week running our Boys Writing Squad Workshops. Once again, they went down a storm! This is what a couple of the lads thought. Aaaahhhh!
The Welsh valleys were our next stop with two days at the Ebbw Fawr Learning Community – the only school we know that has a multi story staff car park!
We stayed in Wales the following week, but this time we headed to North Wales and a visit to the other school where we are Patron of Reading – Ysgol Melydd. We spent four days working on Internet Safety and Blogs – it amazes us how many students under the age of 13 have Facebook accounts – you shouldn’t have them!
The pupils produced some great work – you can see their blogs on http://ysgolmelyd.primaryblogger.co.uk – enjoy!
We also hosted the second 2 Steves’ Reading Challenge award night at Cystennin. Well done to all the winners!
We ended the week at the beautiful Ysgol Gwernant in Llangollen, where we were joined by Ysgol Bro Dyfrdwy for a big writing workshop.
The schools held a writing competition – the winning pupils won lunch with us! Here’s one of the winning poems…
Half term came and went and then we zoomed down to Portsmouth for a day at Milton Park Primary school before we set off West to Ivybridge for our annual visit to the Books and Beyond reading awards ceremony. It was a bumper year with over 200 students finishing the challenge. We had a great evening and finally were awarded our own Reading medals! About time too!!!
Then we headed BACK to Portsmouth (well organised us – not!) for a lovely day at Leesland School in Gosport – thanks to Hayling Island Bookshop for sorting out the book sales!
The following week was World Book Day – we were in Flint the day before WBD in Cornist Park School. We saw lots of Disney Princesses and Wallys (“There you are – we’ve been looking for you!” cue blank looks!).
The day itself was spent at Steve Bs’s old school. It’s now called Ruskin CC but was known as Crewe Grammar School for Boys. We had a lovely day there meeting students and hopefully inspiring them to go on and be writers like what Steve is!
The following day we travelled to Birkenhead and Our Lady’s and St Edwards Roman Catholic School (which is quite a mouthful!) for a fun day.
The following was a crazy busy week with lots of shows and travelling!
Monday saw us in Poppleton Ousebank Primary School near York. We arrived at the school and thought we’d stumbled onto a farm! The school has LOADS of animals! We met baby tortoises, ducks, chickens and Neville and Olivia the school’s hairy pygmy goats! Neville was a real headbutter! What a great place!
Leicester was the next stop for 2 days with the brilliant Whatever It Takes Organisation who organised a fantastic author week at Leicester Tigers Rugby Club (“Come on you Tiiiiiiiiigers!”).
We entertained over 700 students and met up with our chums and fellow authors – Sarah MacIntyre, Andy Briggs, David Harmer and Helena Pielichaty. It was also a pleasure to meet up with Philip Reeve – a brilliant author (with a dodgy taste in dressing-up clothes!)
After a brilliant 2 days, we were down south (again) for a Meet the Author Festival organised by Hants SLS – we had a busy time with lots of schools coming to see us at
Orchard Junior School, Dibden Purlieu, New Milton Junior School , All Saints Church Of England (Aided) Junior School, Fleet and Park Primary School, Gloucester Road, Aldershot .
We saw the most amazing library at New Milton Infant School – it was a converted double decker bus! INCREDIBLE!
Our last week on the road saw us in North Wales. We began at All Saints Primary, Gresford before travelling over to Blaenau Ffestiniog, Phwllhi, Bangor and Caernarfon to work with our good friend Nia at Gwynedd SLS.
The weather was beautiful and we felt very lucky to be able to drive around Snowdonia and call it work!
Our last day was spent with our friends at Bodnant Community School, where we launched the 2 Steves Reading Challenge – get reading and we’ll see you in June at the awards ceremony!
So that’s it for this term… Thanks to everyone who organised visits – we really appreciate your work and hope you think it’s all worth the time and effort!
See you all again very soon….
