Cranleigh Prep School stuents left captivated by Gareth P. Jones

Gareth P. Jones, who is the school’s new Patron of Reading for 2018-19, spoke about the many interesting and varied books he has written (36 in total) and captivated the children with his book-inspired songs, accompanied by himself on the ukulele, piano and accordion.

During his visit, Gareth introduced children from every year group to a world of Ninja Meerkats, Steampunk Pirates, dragon detectives, murderous twins, dark family secrets, bureaucratic ghosts, Victorian illusionists, dinosaur parties, time travel mysteries, funky ukuleles, sinister accordions, alien-fighting pets, death and ice cream.

The library was buzzing at break with pupils queuing up to meet him and have their books signed.

Kate Schutte, head of English at Cranleigh Prep, explains “Building a partnership with a Patron of Reading is so valuable to the children.

“Over the course of the year, the author helps pupils to grow in confidence as writers and develop their breadth of reading. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of our pupils becomes a published author in the future.”

The Patron of Reading is a nationwide scheme which encourages schools to form a relationship with an author over the course of a year.

Gareth P. Jones will be visiting Cranleigh Prep several times this academic year to run specific workshops. He will also be presenting the school’s ‘Awesome Book Awards’ in May 2019.

His first official job was to award prizes to the children who won the Cranleigh Prep summer reading challenge.

Pupils were given a raffle entry for every book that they read over the course of the Summer holidays.

The author drew the raffle and Edward J for lower school, Lucy H for middle school, Mattie W for upper school received an Amazon voucher as a prize.