Basic preparation
The obvious things to do


Fact: Children will gain more from my visit if you actively prepare them a few days before I come in.
Fact: Pre-visit preparation increases learning and awareness and adds value to the visit.

Here are some pre-visit preparation ideas:

  • Introduce children to my books.
    – Can they find any in the school library?
    – Can they borrow any from the local public library?
    – Can you borrow a selection of my books from your School Library Service?

  • Talk to them about non-fiction.
    – Make sure they know I write information or fact books.
    – Find out what non-fiction topics they are interested in, and why.

  • Introduce children to this website.
    – Set them a self-directed research task, such as a piece of biographical writing or storyboarding about the author John Malam.
    – Download the questionnaire about John Malam – 10 questions to answer using the About section of this website. Click here for the questionnaire: About author John Malam questionnaire. Will download as an A4 Word doc.

  • Write a welcome script.
    Set children a task to write a welcome script to introduce me to the class, or whole school in an assembly. See scripts composed by schools here: Welcome to our school – sample scripts.

  • Write biographies.
    Click here to see examples of biographical work produced by Y5 and Y6 children in preparation for my visit: Examples of Y5 / Y6 pocket biographies.