Apr. 27th, 2022 at 8:27 PM
Patron of Reading: Chagford CofE Primary School
Today was exciting: my first visit to my new Patron of Reading school, Chagford Church of England Primary School!
As their Patron, that means I'm making Chagford my special school for at least a year; I'll visit at least three times and take a more active interest in what they get up to than I have time to do with most schools. One of the good things about Chagford is that it's not that far away from where I live now in Devon, so I can pop by quite easily to see their work. And the Kevin books are quite heavily inspired by Dartmoor and its ponies, so they are Very Relatable here! Their Head, Ed Finch, invited both me and my co-author Philip Reeve to come along, and told us that our Kevin books were going down very well, so we started with a big Roly-Poly Flying Pony themed assembly:
Edit: Here's some coverage by Steve Pope for the Mid-Devon Advertiser!
Philip, Mr Finch and I left them with a challenge: to come up with their own story/comic/picture on the theme of 'Mythical Steed', and to put it into an interesting setting. Two girls asked it it was all right to collaborate as co-authors (like Philip Reeve and I do), and we said absolutely yes! :)
I always love talking with the littlest ones, and these were great fun; after reading Dinosaur Firefighters, they had me draw the silliest stuff and we laughed like drains. They went and watched a lot of my YouTube drawing videos afterward, although they mentioned I hadn't done one for Dipsy the Diplodocus, so I shall try to fix that. (In the meantime, here is a step-by-step sheet.)
Here are some excellent unicorn drawings by children in Years One and Two. We started with a Grumpycorn drawing, and they customised it with their favourite food. We also discussed how their unicorn could be motivated by trying to get that food, and how their story could be more interesting if they don't make it too easy for the character right away. I hope the children get the chance to come up with their own stories about their unicorn characters!
It was wonderful to see the older children had some really decent, good-sized sketchbooks. And they'd done some great drawings before I arrived!
We even had a visit from photo journalist Steve Pope from the Mid-Devon Advertiser newspaper, so local families can look out for a news story next week!
Thank you so much for hosting our visit, Mr Finch and all the teachers and children of Chagford Primary! We really enjoyed meeting you all, and I look forward to making a return visit in the early autumn. Big thanks to Chagword Literary Festival for sponsoring my visits after they weren't able to host the regular public festival due to Covid. Thanks, too, to Tucker at Astor's Bookshop, just down the road, for supplying books. Chagford families: f you didn't get a chance to get your book signed on this visit, catch me on the next visit, and I'd love to see what you've been drawing in the meantime!
Visit my website (jabberworks.co.uk) for more drawing and story activities, and you can follow me on social media: jabberworks on Instagram and @jabberworks on Twitter. And check out Chagford Primary's Twitter account for more photos from the day! Follow Philip Reeve at @thesolitarybee on Instagram and @philipreeve1 on Twitter. And Astor's Bookshop's on Twitter, too! I'll leave you with this ace drawing of the school from today by Philip:
As their Patron, that means I'm making Chagford my special school for at least a year; I'll visit at least three times and take a more active interest in what they get up to than I have time to do with most schools. One of the good things about Chagford is that it's not that far away from where I live now in Devon, so I can pop by quite easily to see their work. And the Kevin books are quite heavily inspired by Dartmoor and its ponies, so they are Very Relatable here! Their Head, Ed Finch, invited both me and my co-author Philip Reeve to come along, and told us that our Kevin books were going down very well, so we started with a big Roly-Poly Flying Pony themed assembly:
Edit: Here's some coverage by Steve Pope for the Mid-Devon Advertiser!
Philip, Mr Finch and I left them with a challenge: to come up with their own story/comic/picture on the theme of 'Mythical Steed', and to put it into an interesting setting. Two girls asked it it was all right to collaborate as co-authors (like Philip Reeve and I do), and we said absolutely yes! :)
I always love talking with the littlest ones, and these were great fun; after reading Dinosaur Firefighters, they had me draw the silliest stuff and we laughed like drains. They went and watched a lot of my YouTube drawing videos afterward, although they mentioned I hadn't done one for Dipsy the Diplodocus, so I shall try to fix that. (In the meantime, here is a step-by-step sheet.)
Here are some excellent unicorn drawings by children in Years One and Two. We started with a Grumpycorn drawing, and they customised it with their favourite food. We also discussed how their unicorn could be motivated by trying to get that food, and how their story could be more interesting if they don't make it too easy for the character right away. I hope the children get the chance to come up with their own stories about their unicorn characters!
It was wonderful to see the older children had some really decent, good-sized sketchbooks. And they'd done some great drawings before I arrived!
We even had a visit from photo journalist Steve Pope from the Mid-Devon Advertiser newspaper, so local families can look out for a news story next week!
Thank you so much for hosting our visit, Mr Finch and all the teachers and children of Chagford Primary! We really enjoyed meeting you all, and I look forward to making a return visit in the early autumn. Big thanks to Chagword Literary Festival for sponsoring my visits after they weren't able to host the regular public festival due to Covid. Thanks, too, to Tucker at Astor's Bookshop, just down the road, for supplying books. Chagford families: f you didn't get a chance to get your book signed on this visit, catch me on the next visit, and I'd love to see what you've been drawing in the meantime!
Visit my website (jabberworks.co.uk) for more drawing and story activities, and you can follow me on social media: jabberworks on Instagram and @jabberworks on Twitter. And check out Chagford Primary's Twitter account for more photos from the day! Follow Philip Reeve at @thesolitarybee on Instagram and @philipreeve1 on Twitter. And Astor's Bookshop's on Twitter, too! I'll leave you with this ace drawing of the school from today by Philip: