Got it covered
Creative pupils at Firpark Primary have achieved a literary dream – by writing their own book and having it published.
A lifetime ambition for some novelists, the imaginative kids from Room 10 at the Motherwell school f or children with additional support needs, have managed it in just a few short months.
Thanks to the help of teacher Eileen Robertson and classroom assistant Alison Francis, the pupils’ paperback, How to Survive a School Trip!: A Desert Island Adventure, is now available via Amazon.
As the title suggests, it’s a gripping yarn detailing how the Room 10 pupils become marooned on a far-flung island.
Ms Robertson said: “The kids really love stories and I decided when we went into lockdown it would be good to do a collaborative story to keep us all going.
“I thought with us being cut off from other people, a desert island story would make a good theme. I read them Robinson Crusoe before we started and we watched the opening to Swiss Family Robinson, to give them some context.
“We wrote about bout ourselves. Each week the class lass would come up with ideas for the plot and would uld vote on which ch way t he story ry would go. The he first two chapters ers I put together er for them, they ey did research on n adjectives and d I sent it out to o them and they y filled i n t he e adjectives. As s we got into it t they did more e and more e themselves.
“The dialogue reflects what they would say themselves and you totally get a sense of their personalities in the book.
“They did so well that I just thought, ‘this deserves to be read’.
“We hate it at our school when people think, ‘poor souls they’ve got learning disabilities’. Our big motto is; ‘Our kids are supersmart, we just need to find the right way for them to be smart’.”
B Because the Fir Firpark pupils are classed as vul vulnerable they wer were allowed to atte attend school one day each week.
Th The 10 children in the th class are of mixe mixed ability, but each was able to contr contribute. Some wro wrote pieces and f orwarded them to their teach t e a c h e r s. O t h e r, less physically ph able young youngsters, told Mrs Rober Roberston their bit of the s story so that it could be incorporated.
Not only did they come up with the plot, they also solved problems along the way.
One of the pupils, Maria, uses a wheelchair but in the storyline the youngsters reach the island minus the chair, and were tasked with finding a solution.
Ms Robertson added: “Maria went away and designed a chair that we had to build. The drawing is in the book.
“There’s been such negativity around children not learning during lockdown, the teaching staff had to be innovative and our kids really thrived.
“My husband’s an English teacher and said he wouldn’t get writing as good as it from some of his secondary classes.”
Sales of the book have already topped three figures, and that’s not counting the Kindle version.
Proud parent Marcia Comerford’s son Blair, 10, is one of the pupils involved in the book.
The mum-of-three from Motherwell, said: “Blair absolutely loved it and the book has the children down to a tee.
“All of the parents are amazed and so proud.
“They are in the best school, it is amazing.”
The book can be bought for £3 on Kindle.