We were very pleased last year to provide some money to Minera School to enable a children’s author to pay a visit and teach the children about how to write a story. This initiative was all part of the school’s efforts to revive enthusiasm for reading after a couple of very difficult years affected by covid. The day had to be postponed in March due to the heavy snow that fell back then, but a couple of weeks ago the event took place and was a great success.
You my also be aware that a recent Estyn report on the school resulted in special measures being introduced. This was very disappointing for everyone at or connected with the school, and even though many areas of the school’s work were highly commended, there is work to be done, and events like the one we helped to make happen are an important part of making things better.
Minera Community Council will support Head Teacher Spencer Williams and his team however we can, both in the coming months and well beyond, and we look forward to the school continuing its fine work for our children.
Here is the text of a delightful letter we received after Damian Harvey, the children’s author, had spent the day in Minera:
Dear Councillors,
Thank you for the opportunity to talk to an author. It was fun and very exciting. Damian Harvey gave us the
opportunity to learn more about being an author and how it works. He went through how to write a story
and create characters on the spot. It was fascinating to experience an author’s point of view.
In the assembly he talked about many things like some of his books. He told us a story where he took
things such as a shoe, cardigan, milk carton, donkey and a moody wife. He talked about some of his books
and recommended that we buy some. He talked about his bestselling books Global Heroes and Project X.
Overall the experience was amazing.
In Nursery and Reception, he told the story about a boy whose bedroom was a mess and he had a robot
that tidied his room for him but he didn’t do a very good job. They made up a tune to a story and listened to
one about a crocodile. The children really enjoyed it and thought it was amazing.
In Year 1 and 2, Damian told a story about a gorilla who couldn’t reach an itch on his back and they really
liked it. He also told them some jokes, and one of them was that he threw a fake spider at them to scare
them. They thought it was really funny and enjoyed it loads.
In Year 3 and 4, and Year 5 and 6, he made a story with them. One of the stories was about a green
Rubik’s cube and a genie came out of It. It granted three wishes and it was only solvable in the water. He
got it at a garage sale and the mum wouldn’t let him buy it. He showed them his notebook with his drawing
inside. Finally, he showed them how to make a character .
Overall, his visit was very entertaining and he was really funny and you could tell he works really hard and
puts loads of effort into his books. He told good stories and wrote really good ones as well. He knew how
to make us laugh, so thank you for donating the money to let us have this amazing experience and we
really appreciate it. We personally think his visit was fantastic and We really enjoyed it.
Yours faithfully,
Evan and Layla (Year 6)