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??!

yes son at secondary had alan durant to visit yesterday, he said it was really good. i'll tell teachers he enjoyed it. hopefully they'll have lots more.

Oh roisin
We had BBC Writers in Residence in last month and everyone loved them.
(They wrote for Chucklevision amongst other things!)
They did workshops for the children on plot, characterisation and style, over three days.
Yrs 4-6.

UnquietDad (hijack) I bought one of your books today...
but ....

it was 2nd hand Sorry!

When we chatted on the phone she mentioned some puppets (no puppets on the day), and said she was going to do some character work with the children. We discussed numbers and she said she was happy to have up to 30. (There was always another member of staff in there too.)

At the beginning (at my request) she spoke briefly about herself and her writing, and answered a few questions from the students (they enjoyed that).

Then she handed out some sheets with an exercise to start creating some characters.

She did not even speak to the students and explain what she wanted them to do: she just handed out the sheets
I was really shocked, at the lack of input from her.

There are teachers at school who have been successfully and imaginatively teaching creative writing for 20-30 years, and she had the cheek to come in and charge us for her services! And what she did was dull as ditchwater, and she did nothing to inspire them, and did virtually nothing "from the front". Even when the students were heads-down working (she had 3 separate very simple handouts - gee whizz!), I helped them far more than she did. She was a complete waste of space.

When I've seen authors/poets "do stuff" before they have been witty and entertaining. Giving the students short sharp tasks to do, and interspersing it with anecdotes and bits of information from their experience.

If I ever organise something like this again, I will have very long chats with them in advance on the phone before committing.

Oh dear. Thank you for that salutary debrief Roisin, I will remember it when I go for my next pot plant.
Not that I would have a clue how to teach creative writing myself.
Didn't she ask about their favourite books, or play any games or get them talking or anything though?
Mind you, writing is not a spectator sport.

I have heard Bali Rae is very good indeed if you want a recommendation.