Inspiring Talks Series

Our Inspiring Talks Series sees leading professionals within their respective fields visit the School to talk to students and the wider community.

Given the importance placed on providing inspiring opportunities to our students, we did not want a global pandemic and lockdown, put a stop to these during 2020-2021 and we were delighted to offer a range of virtual talks for our students to enjoy. Past guests have included: Konnie Huq, Lisa Williamson, George Alagiah, Nikki Henderson, Joe Wicks and Old Birkonian and former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones.

Dame Floella Benjamin

Dame Floella Benjamin spoke to pupils in Little School and Year 3 via Zoom in October about her book ‘Coming to England’ based on her own inspiring true story of travelling to Britain from Trinidad, celebrating the Windrush Generation.

Sibéal Pounder

On Friday 11th December, Prep pupils were delighted to attend a Zoom webinar with children’s author Sibéal Pounder, along with 25 other schools across the country, totalling 6000 children. Sibéal discussed her new novel “Tinsel” - the story of a young girl called Blanche Claus (Mrs Claus). Sibéal is the author of the bestselling Witch Wars and Bad Mermaids series of books. Her debut, Witch Wars, was shortlisted for ‘Sainsbury's Children's Book Award’ and ‘Waterstones Children's Book Prize’.

Her latest book ‘Tinsel’ focuses on the story of a young girl called Blanche Claus, and asks the question: what if a long time ago we all got the Santa story a bit wrong? Sibéal wanted to celebrate the character of Mrs Claus, whom she stated is quite often “forgotten” at Christmas time.

During the Zoom webinar, Sibéal read the first chapter of her new novel, introducing Mrs Claus as a young girl who wasn’t particularly fond of Christmas — until she receives her first Christmas present from a stranger. This random act of kindness sparks the beginning of Blanche’s Christmas journey.

Sibéal went on to present a fun and interactive Christmas quiz with the pupils. They thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the music round where they were asked to guess the Christmas song being played ‘poorly’ on the recorder. Sibéal concluded her webinar with a Q&A. She gave tips on how to become an author, explained how long it took her to complete her novel and talked about her favourite authors.

Sibéal described how she became an author — she told the pupils that she has had a love of storytelling from a young age and would tell them to her parents and friends. She enjoyed using her imagination to create fantasy worlds where her characters' adventures would take place. It wasn’t until her mid-twenties that she began believing that she could be an author for a living - she was previously writing for a newspaper. She hopes to inspire children to write stories, and if they have a passion for it, to pursue a career in storytelling without reservation.

Sibéal is the latest speaker in the School’s Inspiring Talks Series, which sees high-profile individuals visit the School to speak to students and the wider community.

Mrs Reeve arranged an online event with Robin Stevens, author of the phenomenally successful Murder Most Unladylike series, exclusively for students at Birkenhead School during remote learning. Robin talked about her books, and in particular, the final book in the series, Death Sets Sail, as well as sharing where she gets her inspiration from and her writing process.

It was a delight to welcome Robin back to speak to the students, albeit virtually this year, following her last visit to the School in 2018. Students from Prep and Seniors welcomed the opportunity to ask interesting questions for Robin to answer about the books themselves and the writing process. Robin also shared what her future plans are now that she has completed the Murder Most Unladylike series.

Mrs Reeve said "We were delighted to invite Robin to speak exclusively to students at the School. Robin is one of the country's leading children's authors, well known to many of our pupils at the School, with her books available in the School library. We are committed to offering opportunities such as these to inspire and excite pupils about literature and we know many students through talks that have taken place have been inspired to write stories themselves. We look forward to continuing to offer more talks in the future.”

The talk ended with some tips from Robin on how to write a good detective story and we hope many students were inspired following the talk by Robin. A Year 5 parent commented, “'It was lovely listening to my daughter tell me all about the talk with such excitement and it was one of the highlights of remote learning. She has since started to write her own murder mystery book having listened to Robin. The talks offered by the School are excellent and offer wonderful memories that she talks about months and in some cases years later.”

A World Book Day Bonanza

During lockdown, children in Prep and Seniors enjoyed an array of authors to excite and enthral them whilst working from home. The sessions were pre-recorded and hosted on the School’s World Book Day Firefly page. If you didn’t catch them at the time, there still there for all to enjoy!

• Dermot O’Leary spoke about the latest book in his

Toto the Ninja Cat Series – ‘Toto The Ninja Cat and the

Mystery Jewel Thief’. Dermot holds a soft spot in our hearts after he recorded a special video specifically for pupils last year when the live talk they were due to attend with him got cancelled due to COVID.

• Liz Pichon, author of the Tom Gates series, entertained children with tales from Tom, her inspiration and showed pupils how she draws her iconic covers during an online drawing class!

• Radzi Chinyanganya – former Blue Peter presenter,

Radzi, got children to try out some of the moves in his fab new book ‘Move Like a Lion’. Perfect for Lockdown

PE sessions at home and school!

• Different authors entertained during Author workshops including Konnie Huq, Chris Waklin, Andy Shepherd,

Jonnie Duddle, John Kane and Julia Patton entertained with fun facts about their books.

• Ellie McNicoll, spoke about her latest book ‘Show Us

Who You Are’. Elle’s first book ‘A Kind of Spark’ is highly acclaimed and was named Blackwell’s Children’s Book of the Year 2020 and won the Blue Peter Book Award in

March. Both books feature neurodivergent characters as

Elle is a passionate advocate for greater representation in children’s books.

Liz Kessler

Liz Kessler spoke about her new novel in a pre-recorded talk to students in Seniors at the start of the summer term.

During the talk she spoke about her new novel, ‘When the World Was Ours. The story talks about three young friends, who are cruelly torn apart as Europe descends into darkness as events during the Second World War. Inspired by the true story of Liz’s father’s escape from Nazi-occupied Europe, ‘When the World Was Ours’ is an extraordinary novel which shows how the bonds of love, family and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.

Cressida Cowell

Children’s Laureate, Cressida Cowell, spoke about her incredible ‘Wizards of Once’ series in May as the final book ‘Never and Forever’ was published.

Clare Balding

A talk by Clare Balding was made available to Prep pupils to coincide with the launch of her book ‘Fall Off, Get Back On, Keep Going’. Containing anecdotes from her own life and from the lives of people she most admires, Clare’s book looks to empower children with the confidence to own their mistakes, face up to failure, keep going – and emerge stronger and happier.