Recently I visited the lovely Bellsquarry Primary School where I met a very talented group of children in P3/2. I was made to feel very welcome with posters and welcome signs for my arrival!

I went along to read Ruan the Little Red Squirrel to kick off their Scottish topic of classwork. Ruan’s travels formed the basis of their learning journey as they travelled with him around the country and found out all about the different places he goes and the animals he meets.

I was completely bowled over by the children’s questions following the story telling; they had lots of very well thought out questions to ask about writing, illustrating, Scotland and about Ruan – it was like being interviewed for a magazine!

But I was most impressed by what I saw in my time with the kids after we had finished the story. Everyone in the class had a piece of work to show me – some children had drawn an illustration of one of the animals Ruan meets, others had written a story of their own (some even had chapters and illustrations!).

I was really interested though in the children’s poems about Scotland which they had written earlier that week – particularly because (though I couldn’t tell them at the time) my next book is a rhyming story all about a Scottish Highland Cow. There were a lot of similar themes in their poems to my story, so I must be on the right track!

Hopefully I can visit Bellsquarry PS again in the future to share my poems with Primary 3/2!

Rachel