Have your children ever had a writer in school?

[UnquietDad]

Did your child find it worthwhile?
if they did - please tell the head/G&T person over and over and bang on about how much they got out of it.

I think I may have talked about this last year, before I did it. Very successfully became part of a small team last year, doing Writing In Schools sessions with Y5. The kids loved it and did some great writing.

The school paid out of its G&T budget although we didn't exclusively always work with G&T. The Children's & Young People's Directorate of the LA helped us out with admin and getting schools involved. This year, they have not, so it's been up to us to contact the schools we want to work with, including those we have worked with before. I'm currently feeling like a double-glazing salesman and it's all going down like a cup of cold vomit.

I emailed 4 schools and have been making follow-up phone calls this week.

School A's G&T person wasn't there but I left my number and asked for a call back.

School B said straight away that they couldn't afford it. But budget comes in April so they will let me know if there is a change. Rrrright...

School C responded as if I were speaking in Serbo-Croat and their secretary seemed to display excessive dimness, not having any recollection at all of my email. I have sent the info again.

School D's secretary was a dragon - very short with me and said "if it came through I would have sent it to the relevant person." She VERY grudgingly acceded to my request for the head to get back to me.

What is it with these people??!

Roisin - I wonder whether The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal ever have visiting writers? they have a Literature programme, so it may be they bring writers in for readngs, performances etc, and you could see if you could 'piggyback' any of these for mini schools residencies or workshops? Also check out your local authority libraries service - ours has writers on various attachments which schools can access.

The Brewey website is quite the worst arts venue site I have ever looked at though (and i look at several, daily)- it doesn't seem to offer a comprehensive 'what's on' online brochure, you have to click a calendar to see what is on in each 'department' for every month.

My daughters teacher is an author. He's great, very creative method of teaching. The kids love it.

roisin our school has outstanding on every section but tbh i do not find it so...
was much happier with a school i moved dd to but we are not catchment so i stay with where i know i have a place due to siblings
sorry to digress!

For our book week Yr 5 maybe getting a visit and a talk from an actor (currently known for dramatising a book character) rather than a writer. I can see how that can be inspiring in some ways, but after reading this thread I don't think it'll be quite as educational as getting an actual author in.

Ds's school had Paul Geraghty recently but the best thing was a trip to hear Michael Morpurgo speak - it was fantastic ! (so not in school but part of a school outing to the Wessex Book Fair) - I was lucky enough to be a helper.
I was always tring to persuade ds's old school to get a poet in to perform or do a workshop as children's poetry is fantastic !

Fuming this afternoon as the head of one of the local schools I contacted has got back to me and asked:

"Please can you confirm if this is a 'free' service to schools. We currently
have no 'spare' funding for a project - even though it sounds very
interesting. Please don't phone before I you have confirmed the financial
side of things."

Yes, it's "free", of course. And the cleaners, the school meals supervisors and the chap who mends the photocopier are all "free" too. Honestly, do they think we are all in a position to give up six days a term to do voluntary work?

I mean, why phrase it like that? Why not ask "yes, we're interested, but how much do you charge?"

But a surprising number of people do go into schools for 'free' for a variety of reasons UQD (often religious nutcases but sometimes altruistic people or people wanting to promote something).

Schools are on tight budgets, and all sides just need to be very clear about the financial implications from the outset.

Before Christmas I contacted two local companies (a publisher and an independent bookshop) asking them to come and speak to our reading group. I was very clear that we had no budget available and could not offer a fee or even expenses, but would be happy to stand them lunch

One agreed and one declined.

I'm not at all suggesting you should btw UQD, just saying it can be a murky field in schools to find funding/finance for anything 'extra'.

I've had to beg, grovel, and scrounge for finance for all sorts of things at school, because there's just no spare budget for anything beyond the bare essentials.

My eldest had Paul Geraghty come into her school with his newly written (then) book called 'The Cross with Us Rhinoceros'.

My DD loved it as it was a rhyming story and we still have it now.

He sold it for the going price but signed the front and drew a picture of my DD (with her name above) being chased by the Rhinoceros.

She was about 7 at the time (now 15), we still have the book and the younger two have loved the story.

It was not flung down their throat, just read to them in the sing-song voice and then given the opporunity to buy. Only bought because it was a very good book, well illustrated and fun to read (I still enjoy reading it to my younger 2).

I would like to know about this. My dcs have had two poets ( one v good and one v bad). As a children's writer myself I am asked to do it very often. Expenses are rarely offered- 'I know your dc, you were at my uni, your mum knows my mum's neighbour's brother etc.' seems to cover that it their minds.
I have done many readings + q &a free, refuse to sell books to kids direct (can't bear taking the cash) and really I want to know;

1. Why any writer does it?
2. How they make it work.

One school I did staff slipped out at break for early tea leaving me ALONE to line up and dismiss 60+ kids.

Barbarian - that's outrageous that they left you alone.

I have an author coming in to school (Secondary) to work with 25 children at a time (lovely, hand-picked ones) and she will have at least one member of staff with her at all times, probably two.

What age-group do you write for?
What part of the country are you in?
Are you very famous? And can you give us some clues so we can guess

Hi Roisin, I am sure your author will have a good time and that you will not give her a pot plant in payment for at least two days hard work in prep and performance! (I find a pot plant is the usual fee).

I am interested in this thread because my New Year's resolution was No More School Visits.
The requests come in all the time- two last week for instance, one a private school, one a big primary, neither offering fees, although the primary does offer lunch and a bed-for- the-night with nice lady who helps our readers. And of course, lots of compliments, lots of how the children would be thrilled/are under priviledged/ need a treat after exams etc. Which is all very well but does not pay the bills and you could not employ many professional people on such terms. And yet I like (most) children and I like books.
And to whoever said they assumed it was part of writers' contracts that they haul themselves out for freeview and to give the teachers a teabreak . Not in any contract I have ever signed, or ever would!
I do not really want to say who I am because then that would be that, but have written coming up for 40 books, all age ranges 4-14yrs.Lots of translations etc. Been in the job 15 years now and getting very cynical!

Pity I spelt privileged wrong. Sort of spoils the rant!

We're in a deprived area and yes, we're paying the fee requested by the author (£50 per hr plus expenses)

It never occurred to me in a million years that authors might do this sort of thing for nothing

Stick to your resolution Barbarian, I say. I'm even more intrigued as to who you are now though!

My DD is in year 5 and they are doing a story telling workshop each Monday of this half term with a series of writers. The workshop is a whole day long and each week covers a different 'theme'. Today's was observing, last week's was listening. The whole day is planned around ideas to develop their own story telling, focusing on the inputs for that week.

Like Marina though, this is in the private sector/

ds's school is having mick gower in a few weeks.

£50/hr plus expenses sounds about right. I did mine through the Arts Council and it was £100 for a half-day workshop, which was planned to be two hours but often worked out nearer three.

It was me who said I thought it might be part of their contracts, mainly because the writer visits I've seen have majored as fairly serious book-flogging opportunities, (large school, so I'm guessing northwards of 100 books sold, many just-published hardback copies) so I assumed it was part of a deal set up by the publishers to promote the books in the same way they do book-signings in bookshops.

Clearly if the writer is coming in to do specific work with kids rather than just meet, greet and sign books, they should be paid a proper fee.

frogs - it's rare, I think, to have school visits organised as part of a promotional tour, unless you are at Morpurgo kind of levels. Writers do these things themselves or through local organisations or the Arts Council or festivals, in order to supplement their really quite despicably paltry income from their publishers.

DS's school have very regular visits from a writer who lives locally - she uses them in recordings she does - and gives readings and workshops in return, sometimes presents prizes in assembly - it's an ongoing relationship.

DS says 'sometimes she comes and records us singing, sometimes she comes and does work with us, and sometimes she comes for no reason'.

Is she paid, Blu?

(If not then I suspect she is one of those people who don't need the money for whatever reason...)

Well - the recodings are part of a high profile TV deal (she is a household name...and lives in a road where houses are big and expensive ) so i thnk she does see the school as a resource. I don't think cash changes hands - and she does about 2 recordings a term.

We had Michael Rosen (I think I've got his name right) he's written quite a few popular kids books. The kids seemed to enjoy meeting him, he told them some stories.

Michael "Bear Hunt" Rosen! He is much in demand and is great. Very envious!

Blu, do you not think meet, greet and sign should also be paid for, unless the author volunteers to come?
Because that usually involves introductory talk, reading, q & a and in my case a quiz (with prizes), how-a-book-is made (with photos, artwork etc demo) etc.

Bookshop signings are quite different, for one thing you do not have a captive audience who do not expect to pay anything. Nor are you expected to do anything but smile and chat briefly and not lose your temper with dealers who turn up with carrier bag fulls of copies which they then flog on ebay.