[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-patron-of-reading-chagford-cofe-primary-school":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Today was exciting: my first visit to my new \u003Ca href=\"https://patronofreading.co.uk/\">Patron of Reading\u003C/a> school, \u003Ca href=\"https://www.chagford-primaryschool.org/\">Chagford Church of England Primary School\u003C/a>! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1162486_original-6d939d375b.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAs 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, \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MrEFinch\">Ed Finch\u003C/a>, invited both me and my co-author \u003Ca href=\"https://philipreeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a> 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: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1162910_original-4e8f07ea78.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cb>Edit:\u003C/b>\u003C/i> Here's some coverage by Steve Pope for the \u003Ca href=\"https://www.middevonadvertiser.co.uk/\">Mid-Devon Advertiser\u003C/a>! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1170148_original-e64147c7b3.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nPhilip, Mr Finch and I left them with a challenge: to come up with their own story/comic/picture on the theme of '\u003Cb>Mythical Steed\u003C/b>', 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! :) \\r\n\\r\nI always love talking with the littlest ones, and these were great fun; after reading \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.co.uk/dinosaur-firefighters/\">Dinosaur Firefighters\u003C/a>\u003C/i>, 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 \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.co.uk/dinosaur-firefighters/\">step-by-step sheet\u003C/a>.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1162683_original-cafce5dca7.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nHere 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 \u003Ci>too\u003C/i> easy for the character right away. I hope the children get the chance to come up with their own stories about their unicorn characters! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1163153_original-f575a74fc4.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1163275_original-5bb0973d3f.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nIt was wonderful to see the older children had some really decent, good-sized sketchbooks. And they'd done some great drawings before I arrived! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1163753_original-f17046aad1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1163806_original-aa5c9ff6f6.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1164205_original-dd147f7639.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1164529_original-b4ba53dc21.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1164722_original-ed2f878952.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1164997_original-98591531b0.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nWe even had a visit from photo journalist \u003Cb>Steve Pope\u003C/b> from the \u003Ca href=\"https://www.middevonadvertiser.co.uk/\">Mid-Devon Advertiser\u003C/a> newspaper, so local families can look out for a news story next week! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1165127_original-9a8be651e6.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThank 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 \u003Ca href=\"https://www.chagword.co.uk/\">Chagword Literary Festival\u003C/a> for sponsoring my visits after they weren't able to host the regular public festival due to Covid. Thanks, too, to Tucker at \u003Ca href=\"https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/astorsbookshop\">Astor's Bookshop\u003C/a>, 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! \\r\n\\r\nVisit my website (\u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.co.uk/books/\">jabberworks.co.uk\u003C/a>) for more drawing and story activities, and you can follow me on social media: \u003Ca href=\"https://instagram.com/jabberworks/\">jabberworks on Instagram\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jabberworks\">@jabberworks on Twitter\u003C/a>. And check out \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ChagfordCofe\">Chagford Primary's Twitter account\u003C/a> for more photos from the day! Follow Philip Reeve at \u003Ca href=\"https://instagram.com/thesolitarybee/\">@thesolitarybee on Instagram\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/philipreeve1\">@philipreeve1 on Twitter\u003C/a>. And \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/astorsbookshop\">Astor's Bookshop's on Twitter\u003C/a>, too! I'll leave you with this ace drawing of the school from today by Philip: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1165313_original-72a8580cfb.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">","2022-04-27T20:27:00.000Z","patron-of-reading-chagford-cofe-primary-school",[],"Patron of Reading: Chagford CofE Primary School",1776628731433]