This time last week I was gearing up for a whole day author event at West Thornton Primary Academy, Croydon, arranged by the National Literacy Trust and funded by Arts Council.

Warmly welcomed by the staff and pupils, I was in awe of this outstanding school. The atmosphere was more like that of a university lecture than a primary school. Children worked at independently at stools, under the stairs, on bean bags and were able to talk to me in detail about their learning and assessment. It was easy to see that the children had very high levels of self-challenge, motivation and engagement and the school’s use of ICT was instrumental in this.

So it was a real privilege to be asked to work with the children of Year Two… who were also that week preparing to hold their own parents evenings! What a great idea!

With enormous thanks to Jim Sells and his team, I was able to test the Aerodynamics of Biscuit waters at my first author event outside of Devon …and good news, it was very well received!

Here are some photos of classes 2:2, 2:1 and 2:3 during their character workshops.

A special thank you to the Year Two teachers who shared their classes with me and to Solana who showed me a book she had written with her sister. I especially loved the blurb!

And ‘thank you’ also this little boy who taught me all about the latest advances in digital technology, including QR codes and PearlTrees… and then looked perplexed at my archaic camera, asking in an incredulous voice, “what is that?” and used it to take my photo!

Fingers crossed this is the first event of many around the UK. Please feel fee to email me details of schools, libraries, bookshops or festivals that you think would like a ‘biscuit’ visit!