Stephen Davies' visit

On Wednesday 18th January, the author Stephen Davies came to visit Dean Valley.

On Wednesday 18th of January, Stephen Davies, the author of Year five and Year sixes class book Survivor Titanic, came in to teach us about his book and the ship that inspired it. He gave us many writing tips too, to help us with our own stories!

To begin the day Year 5 and 6 made their way into the hall where he was waiting. He started off by letting the classes ask questions about him and his books. Then, he shared to us many interesting facts about the fascinating Titanic! For example, Father Francis Browne was a photographer aboard the Titanic, who gave us many of the old pictures we use today. Or that the telegraph operator was too busy sending messages to families to send out distress signals. After that, Stephen encouraged us to think of a person who may board the Titanic, picturing their gender, appearance, nationality and name and for us to keep this person in our mind for the next session.

In the next activity a little later, we had to write the start of an adventure story using the characters from earlier. Stephen reminded us to show and not to tell! Every ten minutes or so, he would stop to explain what we should include in our next paragraph, to make our writing the best it could possibly be.

Throughout the session, he gave us advice on how to improve our stories, whether in school or not. He has helped all of us understand the brilliance of adventure writing! We enjoyed his visit, and we hope he comes to see us another day!