On Our Travels

The summer term was a busy one for us (again!).

We began with a couple of days in Bromley – at The Ravensbourne School and Haberdashers’ Aske’s Knights Academy before we headed down to Plymouth for a very enjoyable day at Eggbuckland College where we presented a writing workshop to 50 boys from local primary schools.

 

 

Early may saw us up North, where we were delighted to open the new library at Golborne Community Primary School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed to Hartlepool for a writing masterclass with our old friends at St Hild’s School. Thanks to Debs, who presented us with our ‘Poolie” passports!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then headed to the West Midlands for our yearly visit to St Thomas More School in Willenhall.

The following week saw us back in North Wales working in a small school in Betws yn Rhos and then in Anglesey at Holyhead Library. Thanks to all who looked after us that week…

 

 

 

June saw us in Ipswich School – thanks Hannah for the great displays and hospitality!

 

 

 

 

 

We headed up to Yorkshire (just before the Tour de France got there!) and visited St Peters in Harrogate and Follifoot Primary School. We also took the opportunity to say cheerio to Lynn Hackett, a good friend, who took retirement from Calderdale SLS – we’ll miss you!

 

Saturday 4^th June saw us in Leicestershire where we had been working on producing an adventure day for some months with Whatever It Takes, an organisation who do whatever it takes to get kids reading and learning!

 

 

 

We had a fantastic time at Beaumanor Hall, where 300 students had the chance to be a hero for a day. We wrote a story based on iHero, Code Mission and the students took part in all sorts of amazing activities, from climbing to code breaking. It was BRILLIANT! Well done to Ellie and Phil and all the team at WIT and Beaumanor Hall!

 

 

For more pics click this link to have a look at a great video Hero For A Day

 

 

 

 

We had no time for dilly-dallying as we then headed down to Pembrokeshire for another fabulous visit to the following schools (deep breath and…)

Coastlands School, Monkton Primary, St Telios, Tenby, Pennar School and our old favourites at Pembroke Dock School.

We also had the pleasure of helping to celebrate the 15^th birthday of the West Wales Children’s Book Group at Prendegast School with the lovely Jackie Morris, Nicola Davies, Fran Evans and the incredible storyteller, Daniel Morden. Lots of cake was had by all!

 

 

We always stay at Little Haven – wonder why?! Malcolm and Mary look after us and have just taken over the St Bride’s Inn – fab food!

 

 

 

 

 

A quick trip along the M4 took us to Guilford library and a celebration with Surrey Chatterbooks Groups before heading back into Wales and visiting our Patrons and Champions of Reading Schools.

We celebrated the 2 Steves’ Reading Challenge Awards with a fantastic day at Bodnant School. Having set the challenge to read as many pages as possible from April – June we were amazed to hear the results. The winning student had read over NINE THOUSAND pages! The winning form group had read THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND pages! Incredible!

 

 

 

The winning form won lunch with us, where the mum of one of the students had made some very special cup cakes. They had our books and pictures on every one!

 

 

 

 

 

We then headed over to Ysgols Melyd and Cystennin for our Patron of Reading visits before working our way down the valley to Corwen and a brand new school, Ysgol Caer Drewyn, which we will be seeing more of next year!

 

 

 

 

July found us back North and opening another library (we just LOVE doing that!) at Newham Bridge in Middlesbrough, where the students had actually earned the money to pay for us to visit – incredible and made us feel very humble!

 

 

 

 

We then headed over to Acklam and St Clare’s School, which was great fun!

 

Rutland was our next stop and Ketton Primary School – again the students had asked their teacher of they could have a visit by us – they had done some brilliant work on our Mad Myths books, so how could we refuse?!

 

We then headed down to the South West, dropping into Okehampton School before heading off to Falmouth where we were the hosts of the International final of the Kids Literary Quiz. This quiz is the barinchild of New Zealander, Wayne Mills. It’s an annual international competition in which teams of 4 students aged 10-13 compete to see who knows most about children’s books. The standard was amazing!

Teams from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, UK and USA all took part. In a nail biting finish the UK representatives, the City of London School for Girls just pipped Australia to win in the last round.

 

 

 

 

We made our way back via Exeter and St Peter’s School and said goodbye to the lovely Angie, the retiring librarian at Queen Elizabeth’s Academy, Crediton.

Our final visits of the term were to Bishop Herber School, Malpas and Connah’s Quay Library where we launched Flintshire’s Summer Reading Challenge.

 

Phew – time for a rest!

 

See you all again soon!