Author: rachelcoverdale

Many mums, dads, grandparents and carers who are lucky enough to be off work when their children are off school, love school holidays, but at the same time, they may be worried too. What will the weather be like? How can I think of something to entertain the kids every single day? How much is this going to drain my bank account?

Worry not. I have a plan. And the first part of the plan is to plan.

You need one large sheet of paper folded into four and then unfolded:

• Label the top left “Free” and “Outside”
• Label the top right “Free” and “Inside”
• Label the bottom left “Costs” and “Outside”
• Label the bottom right “Costs and “Inside”

Allow your children to help come up with lots of ideas to fill in each square. It’s an activity in itself and a great reminder of previous fun days and activities. Here are some of my ideas to help you.

FREE OUTSIDE:

Top left is the golden square. Free AND outside – perfect!

• Play Park – no, not just your local park that they go to all the time. Why not hop on the bus and go to a different park? You could do a new one each time and let the children give them marks out of ten. Choose their favourite one to visit again at the end of the holidays. They could even write reviews. 😊
• Country Park – great big spaces to kick a ball about, fly a kite and play games such as tag or hide n seek.
• Forest – lots of forests have free events on such as bug catching. If there are no events on, you could do things like build dens from fallen wood (don’t break off living branches).
• Litter-picking – you’d be amazed how much children love litter-picking. Make sure the children don’t touch litter with their hands though – litter pickers are the safest way and quite a skill to learn. If there are a few of you, you could ask the council if they’ll lend you litter-pickers and bags. Our council does 😊
• Beach – it doesn’t have to be the one you usually visit, ask friends for recommendations. Remember to pack a picnic or it gets expensive and this is supposed to be one of your free days.
• Geo-caching – you need to download the app then you hunt for hidden treasure anywhere in the world (but if you want it to be free, I’d stick to your local area!) The treasure is usually a sticker or an interesting pencil! When you find it, you note down your name and date you found it, take out the treasure and replace it with some treasure of your own that you brought with you, then hide it back in the exact place you found it for the next person to find.
• Rock hunting – find the rock hunting Facebook page for your local area, usually the town name followed by “Rocks” so “Stockton Rocks” for example. You’re looking for interestingly painted rocks which can be hidden anywhere – next to pavements, in a crack in a wall, on a tree branch… When you find a rock, you take a picture of it, post it on the Rocks Facebook page and then either hide it back where you found it or in a new place, for someone else to find.
• Hills/Moors (hiking) – There’s something very liberating about hill tops and moorland. There’s nothing else higher than you for miles around. Make sure you stick to well-marked footpaths so you don’t get lost and don’t disturb wildlife.
• Footprint hunting – they can search for footprints in their own garden, parks, beaches, countryside, woodland and forests. If you place a tray of wet sand at the edge of your garden with some food in the middle over night, you might find some very interesting footprints the next day. I might just happen to know of some good books you can buy for very young children to identify the footprints of animals that may visit your garden! 🙂
• Bike ride – if your children are very young you can put them in a bike seat or on a tag along. If they’re old enough take them to the local off-road tracks in the woods and in parks. Lots of canals have lovely bike rides along side them. It’s worth asking where the best routes are at your local bike shop.
• Streams – paddling in a tiny river, feeding ducks, picnicking on the village green – a lovely taste of village life.
• Paddling pool – in your own back garden! Throw in the bath toys and a couple of water guns and they’ll have endless fun. Show them how to paint the fence with water too – that’s a never ending creative task as the sun drys it and so they can do it over and over again.
• Castle ruins – some are still free to explore. Great for firing up the children’s imagination and loads of space to run all off that energy.
• Dog walking.
• Park runs.

FREE INSIDE:

Top right is okay too. It’s still free, but inside if the weather isn’t great.

• Decorating rocks for rock hunting. The paint needs to be weather proof. If your children are very young, use poster paint and then seal it with varnish. If your children are older they can use old bottles of nail varnish. (Top tip – if you paint the rocks white first, the image will show up better). It doesn’t matter how good or bad the images are – every rock hidden and found is exciting!
• Friends’ and relatives’ houses – It’s great to take turns hosting with all the kids together – they can entertain each other.
• Museums. You’ll be surprised how many are free. Train museums are especially popular with mine.
• Art galleries – they often have art and craft activities for children in the holidays, either free or a nominal amount such as 50p.
• Country Halls/Houses. Some are free or a nominal amount and again they often have activities on for children during holidays.
• Library – obviously lots of great books to choose and read, but also they usually have some kind of summer reading challenge on where you can collect stickers and prizes.
• Playdoh – you can make your own from flour, water, oil and food colouring.
• Baking – if you choose to make bread you can play with it like playdoh, then bake it and eat it! No awful models left around to “admire”! Cake decorating is another favourite that lets the children be creative. We love to make our own pizzas. We cheat and use the bottom of a muffin for the base, but the children love smearing on the tomato puree, selecting from lots of toppings I’ve prepared, and then sprinkling (smothering) the pizza in grated cheese. Then I just put it under the grill and they’ve made their own lunch!

COSTS OUTSIDE:

• Lots of sports clubs have reasonably priced holiday activity clubs such as football, tennis, cricket, etcetera.
• Country shows – easily spend the whole day there looking at farm animals, farm machinery, arts and crafts tents, etcetera. Be careful because the big ones can be expensive to get in and food and drink can be expensive there too – take a picnic! If you plan far enough in advance your children could enter some of the craft competitions or enter your family dog into the fun dog competitions such as the dog with the waggiest tail.
• Horse riding at your local stables.
• Air trails – great way for the children to push themselves and they get a great feeling of satisfaction from what they’ve achieved. It’s a safe way of allowing “risk taking behaviour” which is a natural part of growing up.
• Go-Karting – great adrenaline filled activity.
• Car shows – vintage/custom/modified.
• Petting farms.
• Camping/caravanning. This could be free if you know a friendly landowner, but do not trespass. Organised camps are safer and better equipped.
• Fruit picking – what better way to persuade children that fruit is great to eat, than tell them they’re to pick it but not eat it! We always have to pay the farmer a bit extra for their bulging bellies! They love making it into a pie later too and it all gets eaten up!

COSTS INSIDE:

• There are lots of village halls that run cheap activities for children such as arts and crafts, table tennis, etcetera.
• Soft play.
• Swimming pools – check out the family fun times where they might have large floating objects and the wave machine switched on. Our local one even plays music and has a disco light!
• Cinema – some cinemas have greatly reduced films on early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. They’re old films but great for very young children.
• Theatre.
• Science Centres.

 

Those are just some of my ideas. You know your children and your budget and your local area – feel free to add ideas in the comments.

Enjoy your holidays – your children aren’t children for long 😊 xx

When my son was eleven years old, he was attacked at the park. The boy was a couple of years older than him and much bigger than him. Thankfully my son was 1^st dan black belt karate at the time and also had the most powerful punch in his class. The attacker was badly hurt and ran away crying.

When my son came home and told me what had happened, I was upset for him, outraged at the child and joyful at the outcome. I laughed at the thought of this “bully” running off crying.

A couple of weeks later I was told who the boy was and a very thought-provoking piece of information – the day he attacked my son was the same day his father had returned home from prison. I was horrified – what had happened in that boy’s home to make him attack a complete stranger? I was ashamed of my initial reaction; I’ve worked with children for many years and I know how much home life and outside influences can shape a child’s behaviour. If the incident had happened to another child, not my son, perhaps I would have been more aware, but my mother instincts clouded my understanding and I had immediately judged the boy.

Unfortunately, the incident put my son off visiting the park for a long time in case the boy returned with a gang. About six months later, when my son eventually returned to the park, the boy was there – he walked over and apologised for his previous behaviour! That is not the hallmark of a child who is rotten to the core.

It made me think of a friend I had back in the 80s. He was known in his town as tough and he was from a tough family. They were all fighters. All except him. His dad would often try to arrange street fights for him but he was frightened and he would try to make up excuses to avoid the heavy shaming that would weigh upon him if he didn’t fight – the family’s honour was at stake. He was known as one of the hardest kids on the block but he would sneak away to cry in private. Shame and rage constantly coursed through him and he often lost control.

Teachers are often the unwitting victims of pent up rage in children. Some children arrive at their school with unbearable worries and pressures caused by their family life. They are not settled and ready to learn – they’re wound up and ready to attack. When their teacher has been up late the night before marking and gone to so much trouble to make the best lesson they can, they don’t always see the trouble inside the child – just a child making trouble. If you’re in a school and you have a “trouble-maker”, ask the SENCO why the child is behaving like that – you’ll be surprised and devastated. Some of the backgrounds of these children are heart breaking.

Good parents love and nurture their children. I’m not saying they get it right all the time. I don’t get it right all the time – ask my children! But good parents don’t beat each other up in front of the children. Good parents don’t beat up their children. Good parents cuddle their children when they’re physically hurt or when they’re sad because they fell out with their friend. They teach them that it’s okay to feel sad but it’s not okay to hurt someone else because they’re sad. A long time ago I watched Sir Robert Winston explain how, every time we sooth an angry toddler, their frontal lobes in their brain develop and this is how they learn to control their behaviour. Adults with anger issues have under-developed frontal lobes.

I’ve experienced life for almost half a century and I still don’t get it right all of the time – how can we expect a child, who has only experienced a slither of life, to get it right? Especially if their upbringing has been traumatic – neglect, bullying, violent, loss, substance abuse, etcetera and the adults around them have never shown them compassion or how to deal with disappointment, fear or sorrow.

Do you remember in the 80s we were told bullies were cowards? “Coward” isn’t correct – “frightened” is more accurate – they are children and they are frightened. They need help and support.

I wrote The Boy Who Couldn’t to show young readers the frightened, vulnerable child behind the bully. I hope adults will also read it. After my son read the first draft he told me “It’s really made me think. Next time someone’s being horrible, I’m going to think about why they feel like that before I get angry at them.”

I also hope that anyone in a similar situation to the antagonist can learn that your life is your choice: you don’t have to be the person others expect you to be; you can choose to be who you want to be.

A child who consistently reads is a child who consistently learns. About anything, not just the school curriculum. In “Black Beauty” by Anna Sewell, you learn all about horses pulling carts and all the relevant technical terms – you don’t get that on the curriculum. In “Touching the Void” by Joe Simpson, it’s amazing what you learn about mountain climbing – you don’t get that on the school curriculum. In “How to Train Your Dragon” by Cressida Cowell, you learn all about dragons – you definitely don’t get that on the school curriculum!

The question is – how do you get your child to be interested in reading in the first place?

Well it starts in the womb. Really! Of course, Erin the Embryo cannot understand what you are reading, but she can hear the sound of your voice and the rhythm of your words. At the same time she is tuned in to your heart beat which is strong and slow when you are calm. You are teaching your unborn child to associate the sound of reading with pleasure.

Your child is already born? Don’t worry, you’re not too late.

I cannot express strongly enough how important bedtime stories are. Firstly, they are a lovely wind down to sleep time. Secondly, they are a beautiful bonding time and thirdly, your child will hear approximately 1,000,000 words in one year of bedtime stories! That’s right, I haven’t left my finger resting on the “0” key, it is actually one million words per year just from bedtime stories! Therefore, a child starting nursery is potentially 3,000,000 words ahead of a child who doesn’t have bedtime stories.

So, you read to your child in the womb and out of the womb. You read to them through the day and at bedtime, yet now they’re nine, they’re a reluctant reader? What went wrong?

Don’t worry, all is not lost. You see, there’s a big difference between not enjoying reading and not enjoying a story. Almost everyone enjoys a story, but there are many children who do not enjoy reading. The reason is that until they reach full fluency reading is hard work! They have to decode the words, remember to pause at the commas, and stop at the full stops. Then they have to make sense of a sentence that didn’t flow, because they stopped to decode a word. On top of all this they have to imagine the characters and scenes from the descriptions (by this age they’re lucky if there are any pictures in their book). What a chore! No wonder they don’t want to read!

The only way to get through this is with practice. So how can we persuade them to keep reading through the tough part without giving up? How can we make it a pleasure? Here are a few ideas for you to try:

• An animal – non-judgemental, tactile, soft fur to stroke, adores the child reading to them regardless of fluency. The only time my son would ever read was when I draped our Labrador across him!
• cuddly toy – ditto above but doesn’t need feeding.
• Grandma – never underestimate the Grandma (or Granddad) effect. It’s a very real thing. You see grandparents dote on their grandchildren in a way that they never did their own children. They think every word that comes out of their mouth is perfect and coo over the most simple achievements. They spoil them rotten, and reading time is a good time to be spoilt rotten!
• A hot chocolate, cookie, lolly – the way to my heart is straight through my stomach and I know I’m not alone!
• Comfortable room, tidy, no clutter – when you’re doing something difficult, it is easy to get stressed, so the cleaner and tidier and cosier the surroundings the calmer the child.
• Quiet, calm, no distractions – they’re working hard enough without having to block out the sound of Coronation Street in the background!
• Everyone doing the same – reading time should be for the whole family. Children are far more willing to take part in a family event rather than everyone else doing something “fun” while they’re “stuck here reading”.
• Model reading – see above.
• Talking about what you’re reading. It’s so much more interesting for them when they can have a conversation with you and you can both discuss what you’re reading, compare stories and give each other recommendations.
• Be interested in any reading they have done – see above.
• Read the same books as your child – see above.
• Ask them to predict what will happen – engaged readers are always thinking ahead to what might happen next. If they’re right, they’re pleased with themselves, if they’re wrong, they’re impressed with the author’s twist – it’s a win-win situation.
• Keep reading to the children – please don’t stop reading to your child. Eighteen isn’t too old to be read to. In fact, at a recent Union conference a lady told me her now husband used to read to her when they were courting! All together now … ahh!
• Expectations / routine – children thrive on routine, if they know when they’re going to be reading they can mentally prepare for it and it won’t be an unpleasant surprise.
• Trips to the Library with plenty of books available – it’s a free resource and so much choice. “There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book” Frank Serafini.
• If your child really enjoyed a story and wants to read the same one again, that’s okay too!

The point of all the above, is that reading is always associated with a positive experience until eventually, the reading is the positive experience.

We never grow out of enjoying stories, we just change which stories we prefer. Once your child has a life-long love of literacy, they have a free hobby for life. And you cash in on your effort years down the line, when they read to you in your nursing home!

Happy reading folks!

I’m on the cusp of fifty and I can’t wait!

I’m absolutely determined to only look at the positives and there are soooo many.

• I actually made it this far! For some reason I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to live this long, and many people don’t make it this far, so to reach 50 is pretty fantastic in my opinion.
• If I live as long as my Grandma W, I won’t even be half way through my life yet, and I feel like I’ve been around for ever – certainly all my life!
• My children have grown up enough to look after themselves so I don’t need to organise babysitters – hubby and I can just go out on a whim – we can even stay overnight and it doesn’t matter! Social Services will not be called!
• In fact, my children are so grown up that one is self-propelled and the other will be learning to drive this year, so I don’t even have to rush around taking them everywhere they need to go.
• Grandchildren! Ah, one of the best reasons for reaching 50. So far I have three little cherubs and they’re fantastic. They pop round, cause absolute chaos for a few hours, give me my weekly fix of kisses and cuddles then they’re gone again. I have a quick tidy up and there’s nothing left to do. I don’t have to wake up in the night with them, change nappies, buy clothes that they constantly grow out of, clean up sick… Grandchildren are bliss without a downside!
• Spare time! This is a massive change for me. I’ve always been busy rushing around working several jobs, running clubs, studying, volunteering in child related committees, taking my children hither and thither, washing countless clothes, cleaning up and tidying up after the two messiest children in England and now, I have spare time. Hence the writing hobby.
• I have to admit, the day I turned 40, my body began to crumble a bit. Well forty years of moving joints is bound to take its toll. But, I have 7 months before I turn 50 and I reckon that’s a good target to get my fitness back. I’ve always enjoyed exercise, and now I have spare time so no excuses. I’m determined to be fighting fit for when I turn fifty. In fact, I might even take up Kick Boxing again.
• Pension … it’s in touching distance. I’m sooo looking forward to retiring so I can spend more time with my grandchildren, writing, exercising, reading, and I’ll be able to have a dog again. Ooh and I fancy doing a house up à la Homes Under the Hammer style.
• Confidence, ah the older I get, the more confident I become. In my 20s I worried far too much about what other people thought of me. Now – take me as you find me. If you don’t like me, that’s fine, we’re all different, I’ll just move along. What a release that day was when I stopped worrying.
• What career is waiting for me in my 50s? In my teens I was a student, 20s I was a secretary, 30s I was a childminder, 40s I was an English teacher and a librarian, 50s … who knows? Full time author? I hope so!

So really, I’m not at all worried about reaching half a century. In fact, forget over the hill; I’m over the moon that I’ve made it this far, and I can’t wait to see what the next half a century has in store for me.

 

I transformed our school library from this:

To this:

And you can too!

Our library had four shelves per wall, over three walls, sparsely populated with a few books. Within a year we had three shelves (the top one was pointless – students couldn’t reach it) over four walls plus three mobile bookshelves all absolutely packed with books.

More importantly, we increased library loans by 1,000% Yes one THOUSAND percent!

Before you start, you need to discover the reading age of your students, preferably by a computerised reading test, or at least the old paper version. Work out how many books you need for the amount of students in the school. “The SLA (2015) recommends that secondary-school libraries should have a minimum stock of 10 items per pupil, not including electronic resources or required textbooks.” (The Literacy Trust)

HERE ARE THE TEN THINGS WE DID FOR FREE:

1. PPG BUDGET Once you know how many books you need, identify the PPG students and apply to the PPG budget for books to cover them. I was surprised how much money I was given for that. Trust me – that money is waiting to be spent. I count it as free as it’s not coming out of the library budget and your school is not trying to find “extra” money.
2. SECOND HAND BOOKS Next, I put out an appeal via the academy’s social media for good condition second hand books (NEVER say “no” to any books or people will worry about bringing them and making a fool of themselves – any you don’t want, just give to charity). Once the word got around that I was incredibly grateful for every single book I received, far more people came forward with books – including parents, teachers, students and local neighbours. Indeed, they still keep coming in now, four years later!
3. FREE POSTERS Having removed the top shelf which was full of books that were physically and intellectually out of most KS3 students’ reach, I wanted to fill the space with attractive book-themed posters. I found lots of memes on Facebook, printed them off, mounted and laminated them and they look great!
4. FORGOTTEN BOOKS After that I went to the English Department and asked if they had any old books that they no longer wanted. You’ll be surprised how many books are hidden gathering dust in English Departments. I think I got over a hundred!
5. BOOKTRUST Next I applied to BookTrust for their yearly free School Library Pack of books (you have to reapply every year, so keep an eye on their website and pop it in your diary. https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/programmes-and-campaigns/school-library-pack/
6. LITERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM BUDGET Then I discovered we had a budget for literacy across the curriculum. Remember literacy is a WHOLE SCHOOL subject, not an English subject. I was only given a small amount, but it didn’t matter, every book was a bonus. I went back to the English Department and they kindly matched it with a small amount from their budget too.
7. HALF PRICE BOOKS At this point, I still hadn’t used any of my own budget, so I added half my budget to the pot. I soon discovered that there are book companies who provide brand new half price books. Now I admit this did make me feel guilty, as I pride myself in supporting our local bookshops whenever I can, but at this point, we didn’t have enough books for the students and I had to make every penny count.
8. FREE WORKFORCE I gathered a team of student librarians and we formed a “factory” to label up all the books and put them on the system before placing them on the shelves. I’ve since had parents helping me too – never be afraid to ask for help, it’s amazing who is out there just dying to help you with books!
9. FUNDED AUTHOR VISIT With my remaining budget, I was able to fund two author visits. One I paid the full price and the other came partly funded through our public library’s “Crossing The Tees Book Festival”. It’s definitely worth getting in touch with your local public library to find out what free or part-funded events they are running that your school can be a part of. It was at this point I was able to get our local bookshop involved as they supplied the books for the author to sign.
10. FREE FURNITURE AND GAMES I was donated the cushions from a sofa that a teacher was throwing out, so I made a floor-sofa, and I was donated lots of board games from a variety of sources. I also found some in charity shops.

FUND RAISING In addition, myself and the student librarians now have a fund-raising pattern. We sell hot chocolates and cookies one Thursday evening each February and usually raise enough money to buy the shortlisted Carnegie books (£50-£80), we make bookish crafts to sell at the Christmas Fayre (£40-£70) and more recently, we’ve stopped giving the books we don’t want to charity, and started selling them for 50p each at the Christmas Fayre (£30). We’re hoping our academy is going to start a Summer Fayre for us to raise more money. We have just held our first Half Price Scholastic Book Fayre and were able to take £252 in books as commission! Children who lose or destroy books are asked to donate towards the replacement. It is not forced, only requested, but parents are very supportive, usually giving £5 per lost book.

So, there you have it. The library which was once really a meeting room with some books on display has become a thriving library, packed full of books and, importantly, students. So much so that I have students queuing outside to come in. Of course, now I need a bigger library…

Top Tip: Whenever someone says there’s nothing in the budget, ask them “which budget?” and carry on regardless!