Some year 9 students had the opportunity to work with Author Mike Parker last week. Mike has had 9 books published and has also written Rough Guides. His most recent book ‘All the Wide Border’ was published in March.

The theme of the day was ‘place’. Mike spoke about his background as an English and Drama graduate and his career as a writer. He writes about places and people, in creative non-fiction.

Pupils, Mike and Miss Stanbridge shared examples from prose and poetry of writing they loved about place and discussed how place was presented in each.

Mike spoke about the importance of editing in the writing process, giving examples from his own experience.

Pupils then wrote their own piece with a theme of place, which they shared with each other and gave feedback. The pieces were then edited using this feedback, with additional support from Mike and Miss Stanbridge.

Some pupils then read their writing to the group.

This was followed by Q and A with Mike; pupils asked some very interesting and insightful questions.