Schools

Since Santa’s Secret Agents was published Chris and Steve have entertained children (and some staff!) in many schools in the South West and hope to visit a lot more in the future. Teachers and pupils have been impressed not only by the book but also by the warmth, humour and enthusiasm of the authors when reading and talking about Santa’s Secret Agents.

Quotes from teachers

The authors obviously genuinely liked children! They spoke and listened to them with great care and engagement. The children responded so well to them both. A very positive experience for the children to meet such warm, intelligent authors. This probably sounds obvious, but we sometimes get people in who are experts at what they do but don’t really care much about the children, and it is very obvious when this happens, and the children spot it straight away.

the key benefits for the children were... Meeting real authors and illustrators, and listening to how the authors chose their words and sentences for the final draft of the story so carefully, using alliteration, well-chosen vocabulary, onomatopoeia, etc. It made the children see that the writing skills and strategies we are teaching them to use actually have a purpose and that real authors use them too.

A great example of a proper storytelling voice.

St. Mary's Primary

The children absolutely loved the presentation where Father Christmas makes his appearance and they are thrilled with the books – they couldn’t wait to share them. It was lovely to see them gathered around books and eagerly chatting about the agents they could find! Children in the dinner queue were so excited to tell the Headmaster that the real Father Christmas had actually come to our school this morning during the presentation.

The buzz and excitement generated by a very entertaining, interactive and exciting book. The children were very keen to talk and share – such a good speaking and listening exercise!

Tockington Manor School

Some books will be remembered the whole of your life…this is one of them.

Judith Case, Tockington Manor School

Key benefits for the children were... The children could practise orally rehearsing stories. Predictions and looking at illustrations. Helping all children engage in reading.

They all loved the story and thought the illustrations were fantastic.

We would absolutely recommend a visit to other schools

Meadowbrook Primary

If you are interested in a school visit then please get in touch and we’ll add you to the list of schools we plan to visit. Of course, we understand that you want to keep everything calm in the classroom with regard to Santa’s annual visit so we only do readings in the few weeks before the Christmas holidays. If you’d like a practical art session then Steve Gunning, the book’s illustrator can provide a workshop to help children to master the basics of drawing and illustration.