Alexander Martin, author of the Stanley Smartpants cat detective series, visited the school earlier this week to inspire our children in the process of creative writing. Through introducing his story, Stanley Smartpants and the Mackerel Robberies, Alexander explained the importance of a story ‘hook’ and then looked at how the storyline progressed. The children explored how an author needs to make each character come to life, enjoying the elements of humour included in the text. Our visiting author often uses children’s ideas within his stories, offering children opportunities to review and contribute to the construction of his novels. Alexander Martin, as our Author of the Term, kindly judged our competitions. We congratulate Emma and Tabitha on winning the short cat-detective story writing competition, Willow and Sofia on winning the ‘create a cat character’ competition, and William on winning the front cover competition with his Stanley Smartpants and the Mystery of the Missing Diamonds cover. The school would like to say a big thank you to FOSS for funding the author visit, which was certainly enjoyed by the children.