Richardson Endowed Primary School, Smalley, Ilkeston, Derbyshire – Rising Above a Fragmented Curriculum

I have been pretty impressed on the whole with most of the schools I’ve visited on my recent author tour, finding that the children do love stories and so do their teachers and that the students ask some interesting questions.
However, I really do have to express considerable admiration for the Richardson Endowed Primary school at Smalley, Derbyshire, which I visited last Friday. They really excel in reading and writing.
I generally start my author talks by asking the students what they think is the question which all writers dread being asked. They don’t usually guess straight away, and many think that it is being asked how old they are. I normally have to tease it out of them. Now, I’m not going to tell you what that question is in case you are one of those very people whom I’m going to visit soon. But at the Richardson Endowed Primary School, the very first child to put her hand up, a girl in Y4 answered the question spot on.
In addition, their hands were up quicker about enjoying story – they were all up for reading stories themselves, - not listening to them or watching films, or playing computer games. They all understood my story absolutely and got pictures in their heads pretty similar to the ones in my own. All of the students in the school had been involved in making books. These were superb, with well crafted stories, fantastic blurbs and nice pictures on the front.
One Y6 girl had started her own novel and she showed me the first two pages. Her writing was far more competent then I’ve seen in some published books. Well done that school!