Monday June 15th 2026
Some schools don’t just host an author visit…
They actively help it succeed!
That was certainly the case when I visited Bracken Leas Primary today.
On paper, this should have been one of those school visits that left me completely frazzled.
It wasn’t one of those days where I could simply set up in the hall and stay there. Throughout the day, I was moving between classrooms, setting up and packing away repeatedly, and delivering some workshops between two classrooms at the same time… all the while trying to keep track of the time, my kit, and where I needed to be next.
Yet somehow the whole day felt easy.
When I arrived, the office was incredibly busy. The support staff were helping multiple people at once, dealing with a technical issue, and somehow still managing to keep everything running smoothly. They took the time to help me, answer any questions I had, and make sure I had everything I needed. At no point did I feel like I was adding to their workload or becoming a nuisance. Quite the opposite. They made me feel genuinely welcome and looked after.
That first impression spoke volumes and set the tone for the rest of the day.
Every teacher and member of support staff I met was accommodating, flexible, and eager to help. No matter what was needed, nothing ever seemed too much trouble.
An extra special thank you has to go to Mrs Betts, who organised the visit and couldn’t have done more to help me feel looked after. From taking the time to run through the arrangements with me when I arrived, to checking in with me as the day progressed, she was always there asking what she could do to help.
What made the biggest difference wasn’t any single thing Mrs Betts or the other staff did.
It was the fact that I never felt as though I had to manage everything alone.
Because of the support I received from the staff, I was able to focus entirely on what mattered most: the pupils.
And they certainly didn’t disappoint!
One Year 5 session in particular left me wishing we’d had longer together. It was the shortest workshop of the day, yet the pupils were such fantastic listeners and produced such wonderful work that I could happily have spent far longer hearing their ideas.
But the pupils in all year groups impressed me. They came up with fantastic stories, poems, and ideas, including one line of dialogue that will always make me smile:
“What in the history of hot dogs?”
That brilliant line was part of the reason Timothy from Aquarium Class won my dragon prize.
I also totally ran out of certificates by the end of the day, which tells you everything you need to know about the quality of work produced!!!
One of my favourite moments of the day was when a Year 4 class simply didn’t want the workshop to end. There were still more questions they wanted to ask, more stories they wanted to share, and more ideas they wanted to talk about.
And if I’m honest, I wasn’t quite ready to leave THEM, either.
In fact, the workshop ended up overrunning because there were still so many questions to answer and stories to hear. That’s never a bad problem for an author to have.
Thank you to all the pupils, teachers, support staff, and especially Mrs Betts, for an incredibly special visit.
And after feeling looked after all day, it should have come as no surprise to me that Mrs Betts also helped during after-school book sales, then took the extra time and trouble to walk me back to my car and wave me off. ❤️
For a day that should have left me exhausted, I drove home with a huge smile on my face instead.
