Tuesday April 8th 2025

Dear Diary,

Today’s school visit was another revisit, as I returned to St Thomas More Catholic Primary and some more familiar faces. Everyone joined in heartily during my assembly, with the pupils asking and answering questions, telling me about stories they’ve been writing, and coming up with some great ideas for what themes I should write about next!

My first session of the day was for Year 4. Despite many of the students in this group not being big readers, they got stuck into the writing activity I put on, and came up with some super work. I especially liked Ophelia’s and Viktor’s stories entitled My Teacher Is a Dragon (not their ACTUAL teacher, I hasten to add!):

I also loved Alex’s fact file about dragon farts vs zombie farts:

And I thought Tamara’s story about a dragon hiding under the bed was really well written:

My second workshop was for Year 3. It was wonderful to see so many pupils wanting to read their work aloud to their peers during this session, and we ended up award a certificate to everyone in this class! But I particularly enjoyed Nikolay’s stories:

And I also thought Borys’ story was great fun:

I feel rumbling when I sleep. I get nightmares about dragons eating heads. I see dark eyes under my bed, but I think I’m hallucinating…

With whole school mass scheduled at 2pm, there was only time for me to host one workshop after lunch, for Year 2. These pupils had only completed drawing activities during my last visit (when they were in Year 1), but this time around, I got to see their writing. And I was really impressed! Lots more certificates were awarded, but Maria’s story really stood out for me:

Along with Hanna’s delightful tale about getting her dragon to do her homework… which sadly didn’t end so well:

And we had some super artwork, including Jaxon’s character illustrations:

… and Georgia’s, too:

The students at St Thomas More were so polite, positive, and inspiring. I hope they enjoyed the day as much as I did! I’ve gone from kneeling (beside desks) to standing so many times today that my legs are aching and my knees feel as though they’re about to fall off!!! But there’s no time to rest, as I’ve another school visit to get ready for. And tomorrow, I’m back to the school where I hosted my very first assembly as a published author!!!