The Grapes of Wath

Back from a frantic day around Rotherham – 4 school visits in one day, plus a 5-hour drive home! The sessions went well, mostly. One of them I won’t speak about, because I don’t want to use this blog to openly criticise people. But for any teachers reading this – getting an author into your school does not mean a free lesson for you! We are not supply teachers (or at least most of us aren’t), we are a resource to be used to enrich the work you are doing in class. You don’t ‘get an author in’ like you would a plumber – ‘the loo’s over there, give me a shout when you’ve finished.’ Or at least in my view you shouldn’t. No doubt there are plenty of authors who are so used to school visits that they can handle a class of 30 uninformed and totally unresponsive kids and keep them engaged for an hour. I’m not one of them.

Rant over.

Wath Comp was fantastic – the perfect example of a teacher who had prepared for an author visit and was determined to get the most out of it for herself and 3 classes of English students. A dream come true for me after my experience earlier in the day. A big ‘Hello’ to anyone from Wath who is looking in.

It was great – as always – to call in at Newman School. It’s always so welcoming, it’s starting to feel like home. And the drama group at Oakwood were fantastic (Hi, everyone!). I haven’t laughed so much in ages, and I’ve got some cracking bits of dialogue out of the improvisations (I’m shown up!).

All in all, a brilliant (but very long) day. A big thank you to everyone involved – Jack (as ever) and the Newman Crew, the library staff behind the Rotherham Reading Week, everyone at Wath and all the kids who took part and made it a fun day.

I’m going to have a little lie down now…