Posts

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How to Grow a Library

A couple of years after moving with my family to Nairobi (where we lived between 2013 and 2017), I started thinking about the fact that the school my children attended didn't have a library and I felt unhappy about this. A reading culture in…

Full circle from Poetry ➛ Stories ➛ Poetry

When my children were really little, I used to read poems to them in the bath. I had a stack of poetry books down by the side of the tub and I found that while they were splashing around, it was a good opportunity to grab a book and read two…

Once a Little Bird Told Me

I have been teaching creative writing to a child called Carina, aged 7, for about a year and a half now. Even writing that sentence gives me pause for thought, because can creative writing actually be taught? Well, I prefer to think of it as…
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Poems of a Teenage Girl

Last year, I spied a book in the window of my local bookshop, How to Grown your own Poem by Kate Clanchy. I loved the cover and the title and often use poetry to help my students with creative literacy, so decided to treat myself to…

Top Reads of 2019

As the end of 2019 is fast approaching, I thought I'd write a list of my top ten books of this year. If you like the sound of any of them, you've still time to pop down to your local bookshop before Christmas. The following books are not in…
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Celebrating National Poetry Day

Please click here to read an article I have written about National Poetry Day, celebrated this year (2019) on 3rd October. This year's theme is TRUTH. So, why not join in and #tellyourtruth

Bridging the Summer Literacy Gap

Click here to read an article I have written about fun ways to keep literacy alive for your children over the long summer break.
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Free Writing Friday - A Creative Classroom Revolution

Click here to read an article I have written about Free Writing Friday. This is a fantastic initiative spearheaded by children's author Cressida Cowell (of How to train your Dragon fame & The Wizards of Once) to give back creative freedom…
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Encouraging Reluctant Readers

I recently had an article published on 'How to Encourage Reluctant Readers' on the Advice for Parents section of Simply Learning Tuition (a London based tutor-company). Click here to have a read of it!

Searching through the Jungle for Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling. We all know that he wrote The Jungle Book, one of the most famous pieces of children's literary works from the Victorian era, spawning of number of big screen adaptations and a plethora of jungle-based adventure stories.…