Matt Dickinson, Tranby’s writer in residence, was in school on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th May for his last visit of the academic year. Matt worked with children from across the whole school, from Prep to Sixth Form, covering areas as diverse as a film production to French translation as well as showing us some of the highlights from his latest trek to Everest base camp.
On Tuesday, Matt began with a workshop with Mrs Chan’s Year 12 Film Studies’ students, using his experience in film and documentary production to advise them on how to tackle their own short film projects, using footage from various Everest expeditions to illustrate key points. After that, it was straight down to Prep to talk to Mrs Crossland’s and Mrs Silk’s Year 2 children about Everest and trekking to base camp. Later on, Matt ran a writing workshop with Mrs Stoke’s Year 6 class, developing their narrative style around the theme of ‘I’m lost in a storm’. The final session of the day was a joint Year 2 and Year 3 session looking at how mountains are formed, the kinds of landscapes and people that climbers encounter on Everest, and the impact of climate change. In the evening, the Tranby Staff book club had a wonderful time hearing Matt talk about the process of writing The Death Zone, his account of climbing the lesser-known north face of Everest.
On Wednesday, the sessions began with a lively French translation session with Year 8 and Mrs Pick and Mrs Carrizales. Then there were more writing workshops in Prep, with Mrs Maynard’s Year 6 class and Mr North’s Year 4 class; Matt was able to work with the children on pieces of writing they had developed since his last visit, as well as a new challenge ‘A postcard from Base Camp’. There was a visit to Miss Whitehead’s and Mr Sandiland’s Year 3 classes, to congratulate them on their ‘Dear Expedition Leader...’ letters which Mrs Daniel had collected into an amazing book. Back in Senior school, Matt presented the three winners of the Walls writing competition – Megan (1), Alicia (2), and Megan (3) – with signed copies of his teen novel, The Everest Files, and Amazon vouchers. And the final session of the day was a library lesson with Year 8 students, that included a reading from The Death Zone.
Matt’s visit was a busy and highly successful two days that built upon his previous visits in December and March. Many thanks to the Friends of Tranby for making these Writer in Residence visits possible, and of course to Matt, for inspiring children and staff from across the whole school.