As we head towards another lockdown starting this week and ending, who knows when, it feels like the nation is falling apart. Could this year get any worse? We're currently in a race to save the high street and support local businesses before we head into another...
The sports mad child. The one who seems to spend every waking moment living and breathing their favourite pastime. We all know one, don’t we? And there’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, it’s something to be celebrated. It’s hard to get them to do anything else...
As a mum of a reluctant reader, this is not a new challenge for me. I’ve been all around the houses and back again trying to encourage a love of reading in my daughter, but nothing really seems to work. In fact, I’ve even written in defence of the reluctant reader...
What would happen if you lived in a society with pre-determined rules about how you should behave, speak and think? If you break any of those rules, you’re branded as a flawed for everyone to see and the type of branding shows the extent to which you are flawed. What...
“Imagine if these four walls could talk and what they would say about the things they’ve seen and heard over the years.” This is a line from the first Time School book, Time School: We Will Remember Them. It also sums up the premise for these stories and it was this...
I recently joined a book club. I’ve always wanted to be part of one, but had never managed to get myself an ‘invite’. I knew of ones that existed, but it always seemed like an elusive secret that you had to be especially asked to be a part of. And I never was. So that...
It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for isn’t it? With both anticipation and dread, parents up and down the country have been keeping everything crossed that come September, children would be able to go back to school. Now we’re into the first week, how do you feel...
When the announcement came that GCSEs would be cancelled, I think my 16-year-old was in shock. Never could she have imagined that she wouldn’t get to sit those dreaded exams. And dread them she had. But at the same time, after what we like to call ‘mock shock’ she was...
Every year the National Literacy Trust surveys children and young people about their writing habits, and 2019 saw daily writing rates drop to their lowest since the survey began in 2010. The good news is, that figure was on the rise slightly, just before lockdown,...
Three years ago, in April 2017, my dreams of being a published author were realised when my first book, The Mystery of the Disappearing Underpants, came into the world. At the time, I was a mixture of emotions; I’d been so focused on getting to this point, when I did,...
The Time School series follows four friends as they journey back to different periods of time over the course of their first year at secondary school. Not only do the children embark on the adventure that is their first year at secondary school, but they also get the...
Back in March, when the world seemed to have lost its way, a group of friends – women – mothers – writers – got together over Zoom to provide comfort to one another and to try to make sense of it all. Alice, Chrissie, Maddy, Nikki, Renee and Sophie – talked about...
It’s been 14 weeks and two days since schools closed their doors and the majority of us went into lockdown. That’s 100 days! I don’t know where the last few months have gone. It’s all blurred into one, each week seeming to go quicker than the previous. Considering the...
In honour of the forthcoming launch of the next book in the Time School series, I would like to invite Year 6 students to join me for a special online event. This dedicated event aims to bring the amazing Year 6 students together - virtually - in the classroom or in...
All their secondary school life, from the age of 11 up to 16, children in England are working towards one goal; the GCSE examinations. These are the exams you can’t leave school without. These are the exams that are your passage to A-Levels. Without an English and...
A mob sets fire to the school house and burns it to the ground. They are angry because the schoolmistress was seen kissing the local onion seller. She is white, he is black. According to local law, this is not allowed. Sam, the onion seller, escapes in his boat, the...
Year 6 in the English school system, the final year of junior school. The year before they make the transition to secondary education. Most will have been at their school since the age of 4. It is all they have ever known. Now 11, they have outgrown this place. It is...
My Zoom learning journey has been very steep indeed and there are a few things I've learned along the way that I'd like to share with you. For virtual learning, you'd find Zoom hard to beat and its recent surge in popularity is testament to that. Skype is great too,...
For an author like myself, who's recently had a book published, the lockdown has been a particular blow. It all started out so well. I had a brilliant launch day, on World Book Day, where I gave a whole-school assembly talk, did workshops with the children and signed...
What does it mean to have to home educate your children now the schools have closed? The rapid spread of the Coronavirus has meant events moving very quickly indeed. I think we all knew, deep down, that schools would close evenutally, but I don't know about you, I...