On the road…

 I am in a different country today. Wales to be exact. It’s similar to England but the streets signs are different and there are more sheep. On the road, instead of saying ‘slow’ it says ‘araf.’ In this part of North Wales – I’m in Mold, Flintshire – most of the people sound English though. I’m not sure if the sheep.

Tomorrow I’ll be meeting the kids from the Flintshire Writing Squad. Now that is the main difference between England and Wales. In Wales the schools and library services actively promote writing. They reckon if you can have football squads you should have writing squads too. What happens is that Y5s who show potential are put forward by their teachers to be selected for the squad. Three times a year they are then taken out of school to spend a whole day with either a writer, a poet or perhaps a journalist. How fantastic! The squad then goes all the way to Y9 spending time with professional writers in order to nurture and develop their skills. I’m sure it won’t be long before a child is published and says ‘I owe it all to being a squaddie.’ Who knows – I might be meeting the future Gillian Cross or Jenny Nimmo tomorrow. Hope so!