John Rice

For children: performances, poetry/creative writing workshops, storytelling with drama workshop, travel writing with digital photography.

For adults: writing workshops for teachers, ‘The Night of Words’ performance for families.

Type of Artist:

Details

All ages catered for

Early morning performance for all-school, followed by up to 3 creative workshops for the remainder of the day.

Performance 1-hour: workshops up to one-and-a-half hours. Full day programme negotiable.

I live in Cumbria but am happy to travel anywhere – if overnight and travel expenses are met.

Car at 35p per mile

Please email us for details

£5m Insurance through Society of Authors CRB through NSPCC

John Rice website

Guzzling Jelly with Giant Gorbelly
Dreaming of Dinosaurs
Bears Don’t Like Bananas
Scottish Poems (editor)
Down at the Dinosaur Fair

Thank you so much for working with our students all day on Monday. I know that they got a lot from it as some have come to see me to tell me.
I was thinking that maybe when you are in Kent again you could come to work with our Gifted and Talented students – maybe a group of say, 8. If you could spend an hour with them it would be really beneficial to them and easier for you.
Hope to see you again and thank you so much for your hard work on Monday. High Weald Academy, Kent 

“Thank you so much for a great day! Everyone really enjoyed it, kids and adults alike. The Literacy Inspector was so impressed with it all and mentioned in particular your high expectations of the kids.”
Linda Telfer, Laleham School for Dyslexic Children, Margate

“I was totally impressed by your energy and how much you managed to fit into the two days, and all with your special brand of originality, charm and humour. You will be pleased to know that I have had great feedback from all your events at all sort of levels – so your hard work was worthwhile and very much appreciated by all of us.”
Jane Streeter, Lowdham Book Festival, Nottingham

“I liked how John goes about his workshops. He's very personable and keeps participants close to the task. He is happy to give of his own experience and again participants respond to and are inspired by that. He brings them out of their imaginative safety zone, and makes it new.” 
Gerry McLean, Head of English, Castlemilk High School, Glasgow

“Many thanks for being such a wonderful guest author and storyteller for us all today on your visit to Teesside High School. How can you gauge your effectiveness during the day? Well, children aged 9 – 11 are a demanding audience at the best of times and if you can hold their rapt attention for two and a half hours in the morning and then another two hours in the afternoon, you can’t do better than that! You brought home what a tremendous ‘art’ storytelling is at its very best. Your own stories were wonderfully enchanting and perfectly modelled how a story should be told. The children had tremendous fun with every activity . . . even if their own creations drifted towards the bizarre! I saw many children grow in confidence as the day progressed and you can be certain you have touched the lives of some young people who will never forget the day they met John Rice.”
~ Graham Twist, Headmaster, Teesside High Prep School, Stockton-on-Tees 

“I cannot praise you highly enough for the impact you had on these kids! We have all this INSET and training and meetings about our pupils and then you come and disprove them all. We could have given the whole morning over to Year 8 because despite all the views of 'experts', the students focused entirely on your workshop. I don't know why I patronised you about their 'needs' because you had them totally sussed, changing channels frequently, consistently putting the fun element in but also challenging them. I do so much on storytelling and creative writing and am well aware of how skilled they are but even I was taken aback at their imaginative responses. I was so proud of them. They have been buzzing all day today with what they learned and with future ideas for their Writing Journals (they asked if they could begin with a photograph of themselves in a chosen hat and then to write out their story of the hat and then film their 'story'). So THANK YOU very much - I knew we were in for a treat but hadn't imagined how magical it was going to be. We have probably spent too long now focusing on what these kids CAN'T do and you opened our eyes to that.” 
~ Linda Telfer, Laleham Gap Special Educational Needs School, Margate, Kent

“Wow! What a lovely day John. I have had so much positive feedback from staff and children alike following your visit today. You gave so much to the children today, confidence and self-belief and fun!”
~ Jane Smith, King’s Mill Special School, Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire