School Visit – Apollo Parkways Primary School

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a school visit to Apollo Parkways Primary which lucky for me is only about 20 or so minutes from where I live and most of that driving was through bush or at least within leafy green suburbs.

On arrival I was greeted warmly by staff, teachers and Year 3 students and for the first three sessions I talked about my life as a writer for children, which most of my writer friends will agree, is the best job in the world.

I talked about how I began by writing poetry at school, was then side-tracked by a secretarial career – where I did a different sort of writing – shorthand. Students are always fascinated by seeing their names written in strokes, dots and dashes and I honestly believe I could do a whole session on shorthand.

I talked about my books and the time that goes into writing and producing them and the research behind the stories and of course I talked about the passion and joy all writers feel when they see the way their stories touch their readers.

My fourth session of the day was a writing workshop with a dozen or so students who were enthusiastic, attentive and ready to write their own works. I’m very much looking forward to reading some of those stories which were at first draft stage yesterday but I’m sure will be developed into wonderful gems.