I’m becoming a little bit worried about myself. Others have expressed their concerns over the years but now even I am beginning to worry. Yesterday I – yes, me!- actually made a ‘whoop’ sound and grinned like a Cheshire Cat at being invited to extra training. I was at my placement school at the time and I can honestly say that the others in the room looked at me as though I’d just landed in a purple spacecraft with pink glitter glue spots on. Apparently, it’s not the done thing to be so enthusiastic about training days once you’re qualified. I wish I had known! For the record, the people there were, in my opinion, secretly very excited about extra training too, they’re actually very enthusiastic and committed people, but I suppose wholehearted passion about training days probably isn’t all that cool….
Much more exciting than my bonus training day, I got to meet ANNE FINE, as in ANNE FINE, as in THE VERY NICE LADY WHO WROTE SOME AMAZING BOOKS, today. (If you don’t know her name, think Flour Babies, Madame Doubtfire, Up on Cloud 9, The Tulip Touch, Diary of a Killer Cat… the list could carry on). Not only does she write books that children just want to eat because they can’t digest them quickly enough to satisfy their hunger for her stories, she’s also a very witty and entertaining person as it turns out. Loads of schoolkids descended upon Edge Hill’s Rose theatre to listen to her and she had them captivated by her discussion and her answers to their questions. Children aside, the students who attended got so much out of her visit. It’s lovely to see the way that someone as often published as Anne Fine still has to make drafts and re-drafts, and scribbles on her paper and secretly puts members of her family into her writing. I now have an even longer list of children’s books that I want to read though… oh well, at least I enjoy them. One of the best things about teacher training is that you have an excuse to be a big kid every now and again!
Here’s what Anne has to say about one of her amazing books: