Our Year 3 children had a fabulous afternoon on Wednesday 27th March. They were invited to Highgate School to meet Francesca Simon, award-winning author.
Miguel (Emerald Class) – “It was so much fun!”
This was a community event including several other local primary schools – St Michael’s C of E Primary, Whitehall Park and Highgate Primary.
We had a lovely walk through Waterlow Park to Highgate School so that the children could enjoy the sights of the early spring flowers.
There was great excitement as the children waited quietly in the assembly hall at Highgate School for the arrival of Francesca, popular author of the world-famous ‘Horrid Henry’ series.
Francesca was introduced to great applause and we listened to her very entertaining talk about her life and her writing.
Francesca was born in America and adored reading from an early age. She came to England to study ‘Old English’ at Oxford University and now lives here with her family.
It was really interesting to find out that Francesca got the idea for Horrid Henry when a friend asked her to write a story about a horrid child.
Francesca: “I think there’s a bit of Henry and Peter inside everyone.”
We also found out how she comes up with her characters’ names.
Francesca: “I think of funny adjectives, like “sour” or “rude” and match names to them. I love alliteration and use it as much as possible.”
FRANCESCA’S WRITERS’ TIPS.
- Carry around an ideas book so that you can note down things you see.
- A story is like a journey with a beginning, middle and end but, you can write these parts in any order.
- Decide on your character and what they want and how they can get what they want.
- Think of the different types of stories and combine two of them such as ghosts and romance or animals and school.
Francesca treated us to a reading from her latest ‘Horrid Henry book: ‘Horrid Henry: Up, Up Away’. The children were entranced by the story and it was a real pleasure to hear exactly how the Horrid Henry stories should be read. Francesca really brought all her characters to life.
QUESTION TIME
Jenita ( Emerald Class) “How long does it take you to write a Horrid Henry Book?”
Francesca: “It can take up to a year for me to write one book.”
Lucy (Green Class) – “Have you won any book awards?”
Francesca: “I won an award for ‘Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman”.
Francesca: “Love to read and write stories.”
At the end of the talk the children who had purchased a copy of her latest book had it personally signed by Francesca and I got one for our School Library!
Thank you to
Highgate School for their kind invitation.
