Pupils from Class 3 of Golden Grove welcomed a special visitor to their classroom on Monday.

Well-known author, screen and radio play writer Dan Anthony came to introduce the pupils to the world of story writing.

Working in small subgroups, the pupils started to develop stories from ideas generated in the whole class. Getting these first thoughts to paper and developing them, taking ideas, discussing, working collaboratively and alone were all parts of the activities.

Having told the pupils about the benefits of reading aloud, Dan read a part of his latest book, Steve's Dreams, to a point where Steve has a package to open.

"Ripping off the top of the package he looks inside and finds........!" At this point, the pupils took up the story thread, many different things were found, people, wizards, animals and toys were just a few.

The pupils then went to the school's woodland area to seek out features from which they could draw inspiration. The trees, structures and colours of the woodland were a rich source of ideas as were the paths which wind their way through the woodland, splitting as they do at a few points along the way. Back in the classroom, the pupils set to working on their varied story lines which were then read out by Dan.

The session was rounded off with Dan signing books for the pupils.

Class teacher Mrs. Bruce said: "Dan has really inspired the pupils, it was good to see how quickly the grasped the nature of thinking about and developing a story."