To celebrate World Book Week, author Catherine Bruton visited our Junior School and gave an animated presentation to our Year 5 and 6 students.  

She spoke about the inspiration for her latest book, No Ballet Shoes in Syria. This tells the story of Aya, an 11-year-old refugee whose hometown of Aleppo is completely destroyed and the long journey she is forced to take to the UK as a result.

In this heart-warming tale, Aya joins a ballet school in the UK, where a dance teacher spots her talent, and believes she has the potential to win a prestigious scholarship.

Catherine spoke to the students about the creative writing process and the obstacles you have to overcome to produce fiction. She likened it to going for a run, in that ‘getting started’ is always the hardest bit, but it helps if you can set yourself a time limit and stick to it, without any distractions.

She explained that as soon as you start to commit something to paper, you at least have something to work with and improve upon.

Dressed as fictional characters from books they themselves have read, the girls seemed to thoroughly enjoy the session, and were eager to buy signed copies of Catherine’s book.