AUTHOR TRIP

FRANCESCA SIMON

Our Year 3 children had a fabulous afternoon on Wednesday 27th March. They were invited to Highgate School to meet Francesca Simon, award-winning author. 

Miguel (Emerald Class) - "It was so much fun!"

This was a community event including several other local primary schools - St Michael's C of E Primary, Whitehall Park and Highgate Primary. 

We had a lovely walk through Waterlow Park to Highgate School so that the children could enjoy the sights of the early spring flowers.

There was great excitement as the children waited quietly in the assembly hall at Highgate School for the arrival of Francesca, popular author of the world-famous 'Horrid Henry' series. 

Francesca was introduced to great applause and we listened to her very entertaining talk about her life and her writing. 

Francesca was born in America and adored reading from an early age. She came to England to study 'Old English' at Oxford University and now lives here with her family.

It was really interesting to find out that Francesca got the idea for Horrid Henry when a friend asked her to write a story about a horrid child.

Francesca: "I think there's a bit of Henry and Peter inside everyone."

We also found out how she comes up with her characters' names.

Francesca: "I think of funny adjectives, like "sour" or "rude" and match names to them. I love alliteration and use it as much as possible."

Francesca had some useful writers' tips for our children.

1. Carry around an ideas book so that you can note down things you see.

2. A story is like a journey with a beginning, middle and end but, you can write these parts in any order.

3. Decide on your character and what they want and how they can get what they want.

4. Think of the different types of stories and combine two of them such as ghosts and romance or animals and school.

Francesca treated us to a reading from her latest 'Horrid Henry book: 'Horrid Henry: Up, Up Away'. The children were entranced by the story and it was a real pleasure to hear exactly how the Horrid Henry stories should be read. Francesca really brought all her characters to life.

QUESTION TIME

Jenita ( Emerald Class) "How long does it take you to write a Horrid Henry Book?"
Francesca: "It can take up to a year for me to write one book."

Lucy (Green Class) - "Have you won any book awards?"
Francesca: "I won an award for 'Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman".

Francesca: "Love to read and write stories."

At the end of the talk the children who had purchased a copy of her latest book had it personally signed by Francesca and I got one for our School Library!

Thank you to  
Highgate School for their kind invitation.

Author Trip

Author Trip

We have been offered the wonderful opportunity for our Year 3 children to meet Francesca Simon, the award-winning children’s author of the popular ‘Horrid Henry’ series. 

The children will have the opportunity to hear her speak and purchase signed copies of her latest book.

This event will take place at Highgate School in the afternoon of Wednesday 27^th March 2019. The children will walk to Highgate School after lunch accompanied by members of the school staff. They are expected to wear their school uniform and they will return to school in time for dismissal.

Please complete and return the reply slip to the class teacher no later than Wednesday 20^nd March 2019. If you wish to purchase a signed copy of the book please complete and return the slip on the parental letter making payment via Parentpay only by Wednesday 20th March 2019. After this deadline we cannot guarantee that signed copies will be available.

Author Trip

Year 5 children went to Highgate School to meet Ben Lyttleton, journalist, broadcaster and award-winning science and sports writer.

Ben is co-author of the inspirational book series 'Football School'. These books ingeniously explain the world through football. 

The books cover all the subjects of the school curriculum such as Biology, Geography and Drama using football as the focus. They are illustrated with hilarious cartoons and full of fun facts and quizzes.

 Ben explained to the children that he and his co-author, Alex Bellos, were inspired to write these books because they love football and thought that it would be a good way to learn about the world.

As a young boy, Ben always had a football with him and spent as much time as possible playing the game.

The books are based on a school timetable and divided into lessons. 

Here are a few examples of the lessons.

Biology

Question: What is the right sort of food for a footballer to eat before a match?

Answer: Chicken with boiled potatoes and carrots or Fish with rice and brocoli. These are foods that contain lots of carbohydrates that give you energy to run around for 90 minutes chasing a ball!

Ben and teacher doing the samba

Geography

Question: Why are Brazilian Footballers such skilled players?

Answer: Brazil's national music style is called samba and they all learn to wiggle their hips which is really useful if you are a footballer and need to wiggle pass defenders.

Michael - Tanzanite demonstrating a goal celebration

Drama

Question:What acting do footballers do on the pitch?

Answer: Diving - this is when a player acts injured to get penalties. Goal Celebrations - this is when a player does flips, somersaults and other gestures to celebrate a goal.

Ada - Tanzanite being shown a red card

Matteo - Tanzanite meets the author to get a signed copy of his book

The children all had an engaging morning learning about the world, football and books.

At times it was just like being in a football stadium with lots of cheering and booing!

Thank you to Ben Lyttleton, Highgate School and Pickled Pepper Books.

More information on interesting Football/School Facts can be found on   YouTube.com/Football/SchoolFacts

Love Football, love School!

DAVID WALLIAMS

DAVID WALLIAMS

 

Children from Year 5 went to Highgate School to meet one of the most successful and popular children’s authors of our time: David Walliams.

 

It was with great excitement that we walked up Highgate Hill on the morning of Wednesday 17^th May. Five local schools were invited to this momentous event which took place in Highgate Junior School hall. One child from each school was chosen to make up an interview panel and Agatha (Indigo) represented St Josephs. David Walliams not only entertained us with dynamic readings from his books ‘Awful Auntie’ and ‘Ratburger’ but, told the children how he became an author and gave them lots of tips on how to create exciting stories.

He told them that as a young boy he had been reluctant to read, preferring to spend time on his bike or watching television. However, one day in the library he picked up a book that changed his life – ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl. Just like for him “there is a book out there for everyone” he told the children, stressing the importance of reading, especially if you want to be an author one day. He was so engaging and the children were enthralled by him. Two lucky children from each school got a chance to ask him further questions and were rewarded with a signed copy of ‘The Midnight Gang’.
So Lucky!

David Walliams showed us a clip from his forthcoming film ‘Ratburger’ which will be released later this year. He came and posed for a photograph with our children and we extended him an open invitation to visit us.

What a brilliant morning for Year 5!

 

A huge thank you to David Walliams and Highgate School for inviting us to share in such an exciting visit!

Author Visit

Morris Gleitzman

This month Year 6 were invited by Highgate School to meet the English-born Australian author, Morris Gleitzman. It was a fascinating and amusing talk.

He told us all about himself and how he loved reading when he was a child and that his favourite author was Richmal Crompton, who wrote the 'Just William' series. Apparently, his favourite lesson at school was day-dreaming and he wanted to know if it was still on the curriculum! It is clearly still a favourite as the children all put up their hands in agreement.

Morris shared with the children his inspiration for his 'Once' series about World War Two. The children got a chance to ask him questions about his writing. He told them that he does not have a favourite character, but that he is very fond of 'Felix', the 9 year old boy in 'Once'. Finally, he told them that you only need one good character to make a good story.

What an inspiration!

A big thank you to Morris Gleitzman and Highgate School for inviting us to share such an exciting event.

Read more about Morris Gleitzman at www.morrisgleitzman.com/

Jeremy Strong

Fabulous News!

On Monday 8th February Year 4 children will be going to Highgate School to meet one of the most popular children's authors in the world, JEREMY STRONG.

The children will have a chance to meet him and purchase signed copies of his books such as 'The Cartoon Kid' series, 'The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog! series and 'My Brother's Famous Bottom' series.

Will report back!