‘He seemed very energetic and he tried to keep everyone engaged. To be honest he did that very well; I admit that his books weren’t meant for my age group but he still managed to keep me engaged. I feel like this was one of the best assemblies we had so far purely because we could relate to him with something that we care about.’ Sam Jalaska
Year 7 enjoyed a writers’ workshop after David’s talk as part of their Book Week celebrations. The task was to create a ‘machine’ character, draw it and write descriptively about it. There were quite a number of highly imaginative machines invented that complete homework for pupils at the push of a button!
In the Year 8 workshop David explained a structure that he uses for some of his books and, taking suggestions from the students, he created a story about a boy called Jon who wants to date a celebrity. Unfortunately for Jon, his plans went wrong in all sorts of funny and unexpected ways. Our students really enjoyed the task and created a great story together.
In the afternoon IB students and 11 attended a voluntary workshop given by David analysing the structure and emotive appeal of story books for young children. The challenge of planning and writing a 12 page story book then began. It was an incredible experience, which not only brought out our creativity but aided us in the development of using concise writing to convey a message or story, an invaluable skill. - Nadine Pheby