On Wednesday 05 June, after an entire year of planning and preparation, KCSP held our first ever children’s conference for all of our Year 5 pupils and we are so proud to say that it was one of our biggest and most successful events to date!
 

Working with Ellie and Zoe at Speaking of Books, who specialise in bringing together children with leading writers, illustrators and storytellers, we were lucky enough to have some incredibly special guests join us: author Michael Rosen (yes, THE Michael Rosen), spoken word poet (and expert digeridoo player!) Zohab Zee Khan, award-winning author Lucy Strange, and award-winning illustrator Chanté Timothy! Our guests ran a series of fun and engaging workshops for our pupils, inspiring them, teaching them some new brilliant skills and ways of writing, telling stories, and how to express themselves through spoken and written word. Michael also very kindly took the time to present all of the winners of our writing competition with their prizes - a personally signed copy of one of his books, a certificate, and a book token, each. 

A very talented Year 9 student from St John's Catholic Comprehensive, Madeline, presented Michael with an incredible 3D painting she created based on her favourite childhood story - Michael's famous book, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" (pictured in our gallery below). Michael LOVED the painting and was particularly touched by the message that Madeline had written on the back of her work:

 “Bear Hunt” was my favourite bedtime story, thankyou Mr Rosen for creating such happy memories for me”

Our grateful thanks go to our host schools, St John’s Catholic Primary School, and St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School, in Gravesend; they were warm and welcoming, cheerfully accommodating 2 giant marquees, 4 very special guests, 18 coaches, 118 staff, and, not to mention, 793 extra pupils!

Our pupils had a wonderful day that we know they will remember for a very, very long time to come, and we cannot wait to hold our next conference, so please watch this space!