posted on 07 Nov 2016

Red Riding Hood at Greenfield Primary School

It is always gratifying to visit a school where there is a clear passion for reading and this is certainly one that I would be more than happy to send my grandchildren to. I had a long chat with the headteacher in preparation for this event and immediately got the sense that he and his staff were keen to put books at the heart of their curriculum and to encourage even the youngest children to read for enjoyment. They even have a class named ' Michael Rosen' in Key Stage One, the others being 'Ellie Simmonds' and 'Stevie Wonder'!

We decided to go for a Red Riding Hood theme with three different classes of children aged 5-7 and so I took along twenty books with very different styles of illustration - including some particularly splendid pop ups of course. One boy was keen to tell me that the first book he ever had as a baby was a pop up and that's why he loved them so much. The enthusiastic participation from all the children made the morning genuinely enjoyable. I was reassured when a girl told me that she always had books for presents and a boy who responded to my example of an old book by telling me that his dad had one by Rudyard Kipling. When I asked if it was ' Just So 'stories he looked so delighted that I had heard of it. I was particularly impressed at their responses to the different representations of the wolf and when I asked them to select a favourite from a selection of six, their reasons for selecting the one they did included :

 

It's three dimensional and solid looking 

It reminds me of a comic and I'd like it as a poster

The colours are strong and scarey

I had brought along a handwritten letter from The Wolf for each class inviting them to send him a drawing via me that he might like, as he wasn't that impressed with those on offer so far. Towards the end he 'phoned me to remind them to give the letters to the teacher as he was really excited to see the drawings. A little girl came up to me at the end and asked me how I happened to know the wolf? I explained that I had known him for many years and that he had been a good friend of my dad's - all very true of course.

Before I left I had a good long talk with the Year 6 teacher to plan for my next visit to work with the older children on the theme of ' Asylum Seekers and Refugees' - I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Karen Argent

November 2016