Berkhamsted Prep’s Author Visit from Steve Cole

Last week, Year 5 and 6 were visited by author Steve Cole, promoting his newest animal adventure ‘The Wild Ones’. 

Cole is best known for his Doctor Who novels, and showed Berkhamsted Prep how he had been writing stories and drawing pictures since childhood. With an early vintage doctor who story of his own to share with the pupils, Steve encouraged them to get writing- you never know where you could end up! 

Amongst other funny anecdotes about grumpy dinner ladies and an inability to eat salad, Steve soon had Prep in fits of laughter. His excitement reminded our pupils of how fun it is to tell, write and draw stories: a great way to start the year! 

After building vocabulary together with a synonym game, Steve brought out a ukelele an sung a song about his new book. Prep were also enlisted in the fun: for each animal mentioned in the song, there was a different animal sound to make. Our pupils were keen to assist with this, and with notable volume did they participate…  

This is the first of many visits and workshops this year designed to help Prep maintain a love for reading and writing. With literacy across the country a growing concern, we help pupils not only to improve their reading and vocabulary skills, but to enjoy the process.