Cliff McNish (Author) Visit

Year 6

During Year 6’s writing workshop with Cliff McNish, the children created their own ghosts to link to his book ‘Breathe’. The children were taught how to create a back story for their ghost based on the 5 reasons for death. Once the children had decided how their ghost became a ghost, they then created all the additional characters or links. The children really enjoyed being able to write about ghosts and mysteries. At the end of the workshop, Cliff spoke of how ghosts move and encouraged the children to finish their character’s at home.

Year 5

On Tuesday 27^th February, Year 5 pupils attended a writing workshop with the amazing author, Mr Cliff McNish. The session began with Cliff introducing himself and explaining why he wanted to become an author. After that, Cliff talked about some of his books and what inspired him to write.

Next, Cliff showed the children a selection of pictures and asked them to discuss and describe what was happening in groups. Cliff explained that as you look closely at a picture, you are able to use your imagination to decide who the characters are, where they are and what they might be doing.

After this, the children practiced making notes about one of the pictures and Cliff discussed what the ‘gateway’ might be. Cliff used the term ‘gateway’ as a portal into another time or place. Finally, the

children used their ideas to create their own stories and some pupils were able to share their work with the rest of the year group at the end of the session.

Year 4

The children were delighted to have a writing workshop led by the author, Cliff McNish. During the session, they wrote about travelling to an imaginary world through a magical gateway. Cliff inspired them to use their senses in creating vivid descriptions. The session was to be extremely enriching, as the children were captivated by Cliff's enthusiasm and passion for storytelling.

Year 3

This week, the children enjoyed a writing workshop with Cliff McNish. He shared with the children his inspiration for his stories and gave them ideas about how to create their own characters. The children spent the morning creating scary witches of their own just like he had done for the story ‘The Dooms Spell.’ The children were able to buy some of his books which he had kindly signed for them. The children were very enthusiastic about the workshop and were keen to start writing their stories once they returned to class.