SueMayfield.com

During the course of the year I do numerous events in schools, libraries and museums. Some of these are performance events where I read from my books or do storytelling sessions, some follow a question and answer format. Other events focus on writing skills and take the form of a workshop or series of workshops. I love working with groups of all ages and am always open to new ideas and suggestions for events…

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Below you can take a look at the kind of events I’ve done in the past, find out how to book me and look at some of the feedback I have had from previous visits.

Secondary Schools
Events in Secondary School usually revolve around one year group. A typical format for a whole day’s visit would be to do an introductory session with the whole year group first of all and then a series of workshops with individual classes. The introductory session would normally consist of a brief talk, extracts from my teenage fiction and then a question and answer session. (50 minutes-an hour is an ideal length of time for a session of this kind.)

Workshops can target particular skills such as Creating Character, or Structuring a Piece of Writing or can be theme-related. Themes I have used often include Fear, Bullying, Time-slip and The Quest. My aim in workshops is to stimulate ideas and suggest techniques and strategies that can make students’ writing more atmospheric and compelling. I encourage students to use their own experiences and memories as a springboard for creative writing and to explore these memories in a multi-sensory way.

Sometimes a school chooses to select a group of pupils and I work with the same children all day. Other schools prefer to have a series of sessions with a number of different groups. I usually limit myself to a maximum of four sessions in a day but I am happy to work with any age and any size of group.

In the past some schools have asked me to produce workshops to a very specific brief. For example, one school asked me to work with Year 9 students on imaginative pieces linked to Macbeth in preparation for Keystage 3 SATS, another invited me to do a project on The Tempest using my book Voices. In 2005 a group of Year 6 children in Hackney based two days of writing and art around Patterns in the Sand, using its themes of change and transition to prepare for moving up to Secondary School.

Because of the themes of many of my books there is also scope to develop PSHE sessions around readings and discussion. This is particularly the case with Blue (Bullying) Reckless (Pregnancy and Abortion) and Damage (Road Safety and Bereavement).Some schools opt not to have any workshop component at all but simply to have a series of talks and readings – often covering several year groups. (This is typically the case if the event is during a Book Week and teachers want to focus on reading for pleasure.)

I am very happy to be flexible and to tailor my visit to the needs of the students and staff. The best visits are usually those where teachers know clearly what they want from the event and are looking to integrate my contribution imaginatively into their teaching programme.

Primary Schools
Events in Primary Schools are often during Book Weeks when the whole school is celebrating stories and the joy of books. A typical Book Week Visit would involve four sessions spread across a school day. This might be 30-45 minutes with the Reception Class, 45-60 minutes with Years 1&2, 1-1½ hours with Years 3&4 and 1-1½ with Year 5&6. The content and tone of each session would be tailored to suit the age group. Sessions for Reception and Years 1&2 would be story-based and might include, rhymes, songs and games. Sessions for older children might focus on poems, on how a book is made and on selected age-appropriate extracts from my older fiction.

Sessions can be workshop-based – focussing on skills such as rhyming, story-making and descriptive writing - but this usually involves sessions being longer and me working with fewer children across the whole school day. Workshops in recent years have been themed around Myths and Legends (especially the Midas story) , Bullying, Lost and Found, Happy/Sad and Pets.

I am happy to work to any specification and to develop ideas that dovetail with teachers’ curriculum strategies. But I am equally happy to just turn up and do my own thing! My main aim with a Primary School visit is to make the day FUN.

Inset Days
Over several years of visiting schools I have found that teachers vary enormously in their confidence levels when it comes to teaching creative writing skills. In the past I have devised worksheets and hand-outs that teachers have kept after visits and found useful within their departments. From time to time I have held informal workshops for teachers, exploring pathways into imaginative writing and techniques for developing good writing practice. This is something I am interested in developing further and I would be happy to work with teams of staff during in-service training days to develop skills and exchange ideas. If this is something you would be interested in discussing further, please contact me via the Contact page.

I have had three Writer-in-Residence posts in recent years. Details of these are listed below. If you would be interested in setting up a Residency please contact me via the Contact Page.

The Gargoyles’ Tale
This was a six week residency during Millennium Year based around Halifax’s Medieval Parish Church. My brief was to devise a project involving local schools that would tell the story of the church and the town. The result was The Gargoyles’ Tale, a performance piece that told the nine-hundred-year history from the point of view of the gargoyles on the church’s tower. It was performed by a year 5 class, and an A level Performing Arts group with music from sixth form music students and design by an Art A Level group. My role involved working alongside a choreographer, composer and designer from Northern Ballet Theatre to devise, write, rehearse and produce the final production. It was an intense six weeks of enormous fun!

One member of the audience said this:
‘ I liked the fact that so many children from so many schools and such diverse backgrounds came together in such an atmospheric piece to tell the story of their town. I found it heart-wrenching to see the amount of effort and the obvious enjoyment of the participants.’

The Search
In early 2001 I was invited by a school in West Yorkshire to work with a Year 7 English class over a period of six weeks. Their theme was The Search and the aim was for students to develop individual pieces of writing over an extended period. My role involved a number of visits to the school – initially to help generate ideas, then to give help with development, redrafting and self-editing. Finally we celebrated the children’s stories - and gave out a few prizes along the way!

Letters Home
During 1998 the education officer at York Castle Museum set up a week-long residency on the theme of Letters Home. After visiting the museum to look at displays and exhibits I created three fictional characters - Ada Marshall, a visitor to York in 1901 with a son fighting in the Boer war; Jane Pargiter, a young woman recuperating from an illness in York in 1802; and Barbara Drake, a 1950’s housewife. I then wrote a series of letter sent or received by each of the three characters and alluding to information or artefacts from the museum’s collection. The letters were read aloud in role (and in costume) in various parts of the museum over a number of days and acted as a springboard for drop-in letter-writing workshops for children.

‘ Sue is entertaining and eloquent and appeals to boys and girls alike. I have seen students in workshops absolutely spellbound’ Rose Taylor, Librarian, Crossley Heath Grammar School, Halifax.

‘Sue is a natural communicator …I unreservedly recommend that any school – Primary or Secondary – take the opportunity to have Sue visit them.’ Barbara Smyth, Headteacher Mount Pellon Primary School, West Yorkshire.

‘Sue’s enthusiasm for what she does really inspires the children. Her excellent knowledge of all age groups means she knows exactly where to pitch the work. Every child gained from the visit.’ Maria Humphreys, Class Teacher, Warley Town School, West Yorkshire.

‘Sue has led workshops with tough mixed ability pupils and culturally diverse groups and has produced excellent results.’ Sheena McGowan, Head of English, Abraham Moss High School, Manchester.

FEES
Full School Day (Max 4 sessions) £220
Half School Day (Max 2 sessions) £120
In-service Training Day
(Details by arrangement) £250- £350

To book a Sue Mayfield event please contact me via the Contact Page, by e-mail at mail@suemayfield.com, or by post:

Publicity Department
Hodder Children’s Books
338 Euston Road
LONDON NW1 3BH