daniel blythe
school visits
Arranging a School Visit
1. I can do either a one-off school visit or a series of linked sessions. Please email to determine if I am available on your chosen date(s) - it also helps to give a choice of days.
2. It's helpful to give a brief outline of the kind of session you'd like from me - a general 'Author Visit', more formal creative writing session(s), a mixture? Will I be meeting children across the ability range, or just Gifted & Talented? How many, and from which year? Would you like me to discuss my writing in general, or Doctor Who, or any other aspect? Would you like me to do some structured writing exercises with the children, or would they prefer a reading plus a Q&A format? And so on.
3. If I'm able to make one of the suggested dates, we can discuss a detailed timetable for activities, plus my fee. I will write to confirm all the details we have discussed.
4. It's useful for me to know at least a couple of months ahead where I am going to be. At the moment I am taking school bookings for February 2009 onwards. However, if you want a booking at short notice, there's no harm in asking!
5. Fees: I charge the standard recommended Society of Authors rates, i.e. £150 an hour, £200 for a half-day and £300 for a full day, plus travel and any accommodation needed. I will know at the discussion stage if I will need overnight accommodation - generally, I will if the school is outside Yorkshire or Derbyshire.
6. NB: I have a full, up-to-date CRB disclosure. I am also registered on Contact An Author and Artscape.
Testimonials
'Daniel began each session with an activity which really got the children interested, and allowed children who struggle with writing to develop their imaginative ideas and feel successful. Over the weeks we looked at different ways to start stories, how to use a wide range of vocabulary to describe people in an interesting way, wrote poems about what they want to be in the future and worked on developing the plots of stories. The children loved the sessions and even those children who usually hated writing or often struggled to think up imaginative ideas were inspired... After Daniel had finished at the school, the children used all their ideas gained throughout the sessions to write a complete story and for the first time, every child wanted to write and complete the story. He provided me with a detailed plan before each session to ensure the content was appropriate and each session was presented in a professional manner.'
Year 5 Class Teacher, Walkley Primary School, Sheffield
'Daniel led creative writing workshops for various school groups, varying in age from 13-16 years old. These workshops were highly successful and I was very impressed with the way he encouraged and inspired the often reluctant students at first to create some very good pieces of creative writing. I was very impressed with his organisational and planning skills ahead of the workshops. He was flexible and able to change the workshops according to the challenges which each group presented. I would have no hesitation in working with Daniel again and also recommending him for any other future work with teenagers.'
BBC Blast event organiser
