CARNEGIE NOMINEE 2017 2018
Times Book of the Week
Winner of North Herts Book Prize
Shortlisted: Wirral Paperback of the Year, The Calderdale Children’s Book of the Year, Harrow Junior Book. Highgate Wood Prize. Longlisted: The Oxfordshire Book of the Year, St Helens Book Prize
school visit information
As an experienced workshop leader for Little Green Pig (formerly part of the Ministry of Stories) I love visiting schools, libraries, bookshops and festivals. I specialise in book talks and facilitating original stories, poems and scripts in a fun and inspiring way, whether it's through creating characters using the students’ own imaginary friends, developing plots, or encouraging free, 'musical' writing. I am, according to a former workshop attendee, 'a very nice person who makes the children see the world in a different way'. (see below for more recommendations)
10 minute Assembly Poem
Duration: 10 minutes
Year Groups: All
Equpment: Screen, 3 pupil helpers
Working with the whole school to democratically write a poem and inspire creativity in just 10 minutes. (It sounds crazy, but it really works.) The poem can be extended or improved in further lessons. Pupils become very passionate about having their word chosen, and are very pleased with the resulting work.
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Goodnight, Boy Creativity Talk -
Duration: 40 minutes
Year Groups: 6+
Equipment: Screen and whiteboard
"Who here doesn't think they're creative?" It's vital in today's world that young people can recognise, nurture, and celebrate our own creativity. This very popular session combines a talk about my creative process alongside pupils' thoughts, fears and hopes about their own. While this is an assembly talk, we also create work together, and in groups, which can be followed through in a further creative writing workshop/English lessons.
For FREE teaching resources for Who Framed Klaris Cliff? follow this link
How to Write a Book
Duration: 1 hour to 80 minutes
Year Groups: Years 4 to 10
Equipment: Whiteboard/ flipchart plus paper for students to write on
Aim: to develop a complete (or nearly complete) story
Through this workshop pupils will have had their imaginations shaken awake and their sense of self as creators strengthened. For the first few minutes session the class will talk about their favourite books and then the book they would most like to read if it existed. After establishing where their interests lie, we move onto developing characters, a goal, story structure and finally an ending. Students will leave armed with a concept and a beginning, climactic scene, and ending, which can be fleshed out in their English lessons. It's also a lot of fun!
Swan Boy InteractiveTalk​
Duration: 30 mins to 1 hour
Year groups: 5 to 8 (but with some adjustment younger children can be accommodated)
Size of Group: From a small group to a whole school or more!
Equipment: Screen for slideshow
Nikki talks about how animals can inspire our writing. This is a very interactive talk, interspersed with short readings from Swan Boy. The children are encouraged to think about animal characteristics and how they can influence their own creative writing. By the end the group will have invented several characters, acted out and planned a scene that can be carried on in class.
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Your assembly was a breath of fresh air, you got us all thinking creatively before 9 o’clock in the morning and what a lovely poem we had all helped to produce within 10 minutes. You sent the whole school off to their first lesson completely energised, well done!
Lucy Dean, Librarian, BHHS, Brighton
It was spectacular to play the game where we made a script with the funny characters!
Year 6 pupil, Durrington Junior School
Just this morning, my Year 7 class were quoting you. We have really benefited from your visit – you made a difference in such a short time. Thank you once again.
Roland Miles, Handcross Park School
Nikki had just the right balance of humour, creativity and interest and a great rapport with the children. One member of the audience said, "I could have listened to her all day!" The poetry slam was inspired and the children found themselves writing a whole poem in about five minutes. Brilliant!
Victoria Dilley, Lindfield Litfest
Nikki Sheehan visited us at Hampton School in May 2015, and over six sessions she delivered workshops to the whole of our year 7. Our boys really enjoyed the sessions, they were engaged throughout, and Nikki was great at involving them and drawing out ideas. I would definitely recommend Nikki to a school looking for a visiting author.
Karl Hemsley - Hampton School
It was interesting to meet Nikki as she gave us an insight into her thoughts and taught us to see the world differently. I have definitely become more involved with writing, and the creative writing we did with her was really inspiring.
Y8 Pupil, Blatchington Mill School
For further details please contact me at nssheehan77@gmail.com
Skype visits also available. Please contact http://virtualauthors.co.uk