VENUE: Oakfield Junior school Fetcham, Surrey

AUDIENCE: Y3, Y4, Y5 in their classrooms, two classes per year. Y6 classes together in Hall with clipboards, paper, empty story mountain plan and pencils.

MEDIA: Video of real dogs and PowerPoint on memory stick connected to classroom desktop and monitor

LENGTH of SESSIONS: 40 mins each class

CONTENT: For each of Y3,Y4,Y5 in Classrooms and Y6 in Hall.

• Background to how I came to write stories starting from when I was their age!

• Team work to produce a book - Author, Illustrator, Publisher

• The process of writing a story, showing my scribblings, communication between the Author and Illustrator as the pictures build up to the final version, drafting, re-drafting etc.

• Video of the real dogs showing aspects of them that are related in the stories

• Live story telling of one of my books including questions before, during and after to explore the story and the theme.

• Any questions for me?

• Writing task, structuring their own story about Charlie Farley and Jasper using the 5 part Story Mountain plan after having seen example from the book I read to them.

• Class teachers carried on the stories after I had left.

SCHOOL’S PREPARATION and SUPPORT agreed in return for no charge for visit:

• A copy of each of Elaine’s published Charlie Farley books bought for the school

• Agreed Story Mountain plan sheets printed off for each class after discussion about content with Elaine

• Email letter to parents the week before, on the day as a reminder and after with details of author’s visit with details about pre-ordering books before visit or buying books at Home Time on the day. Elaine’s web site given so parents can have a look before or after the day. Books kept after Elaine’s visit for 1 week in case any parents had missed getting them.

• Staff and Children reviews and photos sent to Elaine afterwards