Westdene Primary School & Nursery

Our 'Read,Dream,Share' Festival of books got off to an fantastic start with an absolutely sensational book week. There were inspiring literary challenges to complete each day and children were enthused to work both collaboratively and independently to write poetry, prose and book reviews.

Cressida Cowell, Children’s Laureate, visited via video conferencing and it was an absolute joy to see her light up each classroom with her passion for literature.

She gave all the children three recommendations:

1. Keep a special book for all your ideas. (This is how she started her first novel!)
2. Draw a map of your imaginary places.
3. Do your research; the process will give you lots of new ideas.

Cressida also stated that ‘Books are magic!’.  She told us that ‘Children are the cleverest people in the world’ and in recognition that children can often comprehend far beyond their own reading ability, she urged the children to ask their adults to read to them. We also loved hearing how she makes her books ‘Look like sweets not Brussel Sprouts!’ - although we have to say that some of us do like our sprouts...perhaps there is a seed of a story idea there too!

Cressida has also shared a recording of her reading one of her picture books: ‘Emily Brown and the Thing.’ It is such fun, a wonderful book - we highly recommend it along with her ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ series and new series ‘The Wizards of Once'.