Wednesday May 21st 2025

Dear Diary,

The greeting I received from the breakfast club attendees when I arrived back at Abbey Park Middle School made me wonder whether they’d mistaken me for royalty! It brought tears to my eyes to realise just how excited they all were to have me back again. And I couldn’t have been happier to return to this wonderful school, equipped with many fond memories of my previous visit… and a dragon or two, of course!

Lizzie (one of the breakfast club members) was disappointed to discover that I wouldn’t be hosting a workshop for the Year 3 pupils during my stay. But I managed to sign her copy of WARNING: May Contain Dragons and her little sister Bella’s copy of WARNING: Magic Can Be Dangerous! then hand over some bookmarks and stickers before it was time for my assembly to begin.

I’d been told that, as a whole, the pupils at Abbey Park aren’t big readers. But that wasn’t evident at all during my assembly, as they joined in wholeheartedly with questions and answers throughout, and they seemed transfixed when I read the opening chapters of my latest book.

The moment I walked into Class 5SH for my first workshop, I instantly recognised the lovely Bella, who I first met at Abbey Park last year… then saw again at the event I hosted in the Regent Arcade Shopping Centre last summer. And Bella had some exciting news to share with me. She’s about to have her poem, Sirens, published in the Wonderverse – Flights of Fantasy book. She very kindly presented me with a printout of it, along with a lovely accompanying note that thanked me for inspiring her to write. And I had to hold back the tears for the second time!!! I’ve met thousands of incredible students during my school visits over the previous year, and so many of them have made a big impression on me, like Bella. So, it’s always extremely special to hear that I’ve also made an impression on some of THEM. Bella’s writing shone again during this workshop, with her super story about a dragon who at her grandma:

And the pupils in 5SH were all fast workers. They produced some incredible written work and artwork in the hour I was with them. And Isaac managed to finish his super comic strip:

My second session was for Year 6, Mr Martin’s class. And just like last year, Mr Martin himself was a great sport. He wasn’t written into QUITE as many stories as he had been the previous year, but he threw himself wholeheartedly into performing a rap that one of the pupils had written, much to everyone’s delight. We gave out lots of certificates during this workshop, but my favourite pieces of work would have to be Ted’s account of what it’s like living with a dragon hiding under your bed (which I hope he’ll keep working on):

… and Claudia’s humorous letter exchange between a parent (whose child’s homework had unfortunately been eaten by their pet dragon) and her child’s disbelieving teacher:

After lunch, I spent an hour with Year 4. Once again, I was impressed by how quickly the pupils got stuck into the activities and the incredible imaginations they all displayed. And there were so many brilliant pieces of work produced, including Amelia’s story about a dragon hiding under her bed:

… Oscar’s hilarious tale about how he and Garry sought revenge on their teacher (who didn’t believe Garry’s homework had been eaten by a dragon) by putting a salamander in the teacher’s water, placing a water bucket over his door, putting a frog in the stationery cupboard, and putting Gary’s pet dragon on his desk:

… and Cassius’ brilliant bonkers story entitled There’s a Dragon Hiding Under My Bed:

My workshop for Class 5LT brought the day to a close far too soon, but not without much hilarity along the way. I think we ended up handing certificates out to everyone in this class. Some people just seem to be natural born storytellers, and Alfie is definitely one of them. He wrote a super short story about what dragons do with doughnuts, then proceeded to write a selection of witty anecdotes based around many of my other title prompts (and possibly has a whole book full of tales written by now). With the agreement of his teacher and his classmates, I decided to award him with one of my dragons as a prize. I hope he’ll continue to tap into his imagination and continue to write for fun, as he really has a talent for writing and a cracking sense of humour:

I was sad to say goodbye to Abbey Park for the second time after having such a fantastic day there yet again. But I’m hoping to return there next year with my crazy grandma. (My story about a crazy grandma, that is).