Using computing experiences to inspire the minds of the future, Su Adams from ‘U Can Too’ loves nothing more than seeing children’s eyes light up with excitement when they achieve creative results in her computing workshops.  Su is passionate about empowering students to believe that a future in STEM is achievable.  Su enthusiastically delivers this by designing innovative physical computing projects with cross-curricular links, using lights, motors and sensors to create tangible interactions in the real world.  Whether this is helping students to develop moving artwork, literacy-linked robots or simple solutions for real-world problems, she never tires of designing and delivering memorable and purposeful learning experiences.  As a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ for the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), Su enjoys empowering schools in developing their computing education offer through teacher CPD and advice.

Catherine studied ecology and campaigned with Greenpeace before becoming an Editor at the Natural History Museum. Her first book The Story of Life: A first book on evolution has sold over 80,000 copies worldwide. She has now written over 35 nonfiction picture books on nature and conservation, working with a network of scientists around the world.  Catherine’s ambition is to spark curiosity, conversation and care for the natural world.

She shares her stories with huge enthusiasm in lively, interactive workshops for KS1 and KS2 in primary schools across the UK. She also shares experiences of visiting schools in West and southern Africa, most recently the Okavango Delta in Botswana at the invitation of the National Geographic and Ghana, where she is working with local conservation organisations on a book for children. All of Catherine’s books are supported by teaching materials, activity sheets and drawing tutorials.

Her story about the wolves of Yellowstone Park Fourteen Wolves: a rewilding story was shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2021 and The Tigers’ Tale: a conservation story shortlisted for the Association of Science Education Book of the Year 2023. Invisible Nature: a world beyond our senses won the Nonfiction Book Award for Teach Primary in 2022.

Ian is an Author/Illustrator who started his career designing album covers (including Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road) then moved on to Children’s Books. He has illustrated traditional tales like Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid and Philip Pullman’s Puss in Boots, as well as his own stories like The Teddy Robber. His most recent novels for older children are the Tom Trueheart series.

A qualified teacher and performance poet, Valerie will bring the atmosphere of the Caribbean into UK schools and festivals. Valerie’s writing is heavily influenced by her Jamaican background – she even begins most of her performances with a crash course in Jamaican Patois, so that non-speakers can enjoy the Patois poems in her set more!

Denis has an acting and a teaching background. He stopped teaching when he was commissioned to write Pipkins for children’s television, and went on to write for Rainbow, Let’s Pretend and to create The Munch Bunch. Denis is the author of a series of picture books for younger children, and several novels for older kids. His teaching and acting continue with his very popular school visits: he’s done visits all over the world combining performance with a writing workshop for Years 5 & 6.

Ed is a writer, illustrator, storyteller and musician. He has recently performed his books—Umpkin, We the Wild Ones and Carried Away with the Carnival—to thousands of children in schools, libraries and at festivals. His earlier works include Me and My Alien Friend, which was recommended for the Summer Reading Challenge in 2019, as well as Mr Trim and Miss Jumble, and Francis The Scaredy Cat. Ed’s writing is often praised for its sensitivity, emotional understanding and sense of wonder. He is passionate about his handmade, mixed-media approach to illustration—there’s no Photoshop in Ed’s work! When visiting schools, Ed uses his large, layered original illustrations to tell his stories, preferring them to printed books or projections.

He’s also a qualified teacher and has been running workshops based on his writing and illustrating for many years. Ed has excellent awareness of the curriculum and contemporary school life.

In 2023, Ed completed intensive storytelling training at Emerson College and has since added exuberant re-tellings of traditional tales to his performances and workshops. A lifelong musician, Ed often turns his poems into songs and enjoys getting schools singing.

Ed’s visits are an inspirational mix of poetry, storytelling, visual art and music.

Tony Bradman is an award-winning writer of many children’s books, a well-known editor with a particular focus on diversity and finding new voices, and a respected book reviewer. Tony has written for children of all ages – poetry and picture books, beginner readers. In recent years he has written a lot of historical fiction which has been very successful in schools, particularly Viking Boy and Anglo-Saxon Boy. Tony has edited many anthologies of short stories and poetry, and has been a lead author (‘show runner’) and series editor for educational reading schemes such as Project X. He also came up with the idea for the highly successful Scholastic series Voices, a series of novels about hidden communities in Britain written by authors such as Patrice Lawrence, Bali Rai and Benjamin Zephaniah. Tony has visited hundreds of schools (in the real world and virtually!) and appeared at all the major literary festivals. He’s happy to entertain children from nursery to lower secondary, and also talk to grown-ups about the writing process, stories, children’s books and his passion for history.

An Author/Illustrator who has sold more than 12 million books in 15 languages, Nick is best known for Percy the Park Keeper, The Whisperer (winner of the Nestle Prize 2005) and two books about Q Pootle 5. When asked what the best thing about his job was, Nick said: “I just like the kids. I like the honesty of children. Getting out to meet them is one of the pleasures of what I do: I like to get out to schools, festivals and bookshops, but can’t do it as much as I’d like to. It’s very rewarding to see children actually enjoying what you have produced”.

Fiona Clark is an author, teacher, poet and workshop leader living and working in the UK. A teacher and school leader for over two decades, and now a member of the National Association of Writers in Education, Fiona regularly takes up the role of writer in residence in schools across the UK, running creative writing workshops. Evidence gathered through a Knowledge Exchange programme with UCL, shows that Fiona’s workshops improve children’s writing skills, improve well-being, boost self-esteem and increase confidence. All seven creative writing workshops are shared in full, with photocopiable resources, in the publication A Practical Guide to Creative Writing in Schools, available from Routledge along with her poetry anthology The Leaf and the Pea available from Amazon. 

Fiona is also a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and has written for the TES. Her well-being book for youngsters Things Nobody Tells You When You’re Growing Up has received praise from children and grownups and after first publication quickly reached number one in the Amazon best sellers list of books for adolescents. Fiona can work with students and run training for staff.

Steve describes himself as “the ever-scribbling, slightly crazy author of the Astrosaurs & Cows-in-Action books”. He’s hugely popular with KS2 and festival audiences, where his high energy performances are seen as among the very best ways to get kids engaged with reading. Astrosaurs, Cows in Action, Slime Squad, and Z-Rex are well-known: but Steve’s credits also include some Doctor Who original novels.

Chip began writing before he could write. It’s true: his first short story was a series of squiggles – indecipherable, but punctuated. Nowadays, he is sought out by educators keen to inspire that level of urgent enthusiasm for reading and writing with their learners – a proficiency he developed during his two decades as an oral storyteller.

In that time, Chip has represented the Roald Dahl Story Museum for ITV, performed regularly at Glastonbury Festival since 2016, and earned a Guinness World Record certificate for his contribution to the world’s longest continuous storytelling performance.

However, his highest passion is in sharing the power of story-led pedagogies with educators, having witnessed first-hand how the simple act of storytelling has helped children overcome anxiety, grow their literacy and numeracy, and become enthusiastically curious about any number of topics. He was commissioned by English Hub to write All the Better to Read You With, the world’s first off-the-bookshelf lesson scheme for inspiring Reading for Pleasure, and has provided CPD for BookTrust, European Lifelong Learning, and countless schools worldwide.

Chip has authored 19 children’s books and is an Associate Artist of the National Centre for Writing. He is Regional Adviser for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in the Midlands and sits on the Society of Authors’ Children’s Writers & Illustrators committee.

A. M. DASSU is a former World Book Day author and internationally acclaimed author of 16 children’s books, including Boy, Everywhere, Fight Back, Kicked Out and Wild Journey, which have collectively been listed for over 60 awards, including the Carnegie Medal, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Week Junior Book Award. She is an Empathy Lab ambassador and one of The National Literacy Trust’s Connecting Stories campaign authors, aiming to help inspire a love of reading and writing in children and young people.

A. M. Dassu has written across genres from picture books to chapter books, early readers, middle grade and teen fiction. She writes books that are inclusive, challenge stereotypes, humanise the ‘other’ and are full of empathy, hope and heart. Her workshops and assemblies for KS2 and KS3 are hugely interactive and engaging, leaving children feeling empowered and inspired. Her workshops for KS1 and lower KS2 are fun and interactive, getting children moving and encouraging them to ask questions.

A. M. Dassu has also delivered keynote speeches to librarians, teachers and aspiring authors at conferences and is able to deliver INSET sessions.

Teaching for over 20 years Paul Delaney has lots of experience working with children!  During this time, Paul developed a love of children’s stories and poetry and decided to start writing himself. Encouraged by the children’s enthusiastic response to his work, Paul decided to publish a few books and the rest, as they say, is history. Paul is now a freelance poet and writer, working with children in schools all over the UK. His aim is to develop children’s love and enjoyment of creative writing, developing their reading and writing skills, primarily using modern poetry and narrative.  In addition to being a writer, Paul is also an accomplished organist and pianist. One of his workshops is writing a story and composing a soundtrack to it!

Alkin has had one foot in Higher Education as a lecturer in screenwriting and directing – for over 15 years – and the other foot in independent film where he continues to work both as a screenwriter and director. He is the former head of the B.A (Hons) in Film Production, a level 6 top-up degree which he designed and was instrumental in getting validated.

Alkin loves to share screenwriting and believes in a fun, no-jargon, participatory and practical approach to quickly build confidence, understanding and know-how in what can seem like an inaccessible craft. He is particularly skilled at helping brand new and early phase writers to go from an idea to a fully-fledged story.

Alkin came to screenwriting and directing aged 29 after an early mid-life crisis saw him walk away from a conventional ‘suit and tie’ corporate career. Why so late? Being creative was simply not a destination for a working class, UK born Turkish-Cypriot boy. Regardless, a year later his first feature screenplay started a bidding war between two producers who were vying to option it.

Practical Talks & Workshops that work well include:

• What Makes You Think You Can’t Be a Screenwriter?
• What’s Screenwriting and How does it Differ from Other Forms of Writing?
• How to go from an Idea to a Story
• The Power of Visual Writing: Cinematic Prose. How is it Different from Literary Prose?
• What is a Story?
• What makes for Engaging Characters in Screenwriting?
• Dialogue do’s and dont’s?
• The Magic Sauce… Secret Dramatic Screenwriting Techniques and Devices that the Professionals Don’t Want you to Know

Ex-Children’s Laureate, two-time Carnegie Prize-winner and two-time Whitbread Award winner, Anne is a popular and extremely prestigious author visitor for primary, secondary and adult audiences. She might have written How to Write Really Badly, but her many titles which include Madame Doubtfire, Road of Bones and Tulip Touch prove her writing is anything but!

Named as one of the ‘Top 10 teachers you won’t believe exist’  (The Richest), Christian’s career has clearly taken poetry to unexpected places. From PMQs at Westminster, to TED Talks and even the Premier League. Despite this, it is the classroom where Christian is truly at home. Christian is one of the only few poets in the world selected to complete a ‘Spoken Word Education Programme’ and Teaching MA at Goldsmiths University, an incentive which was created to transform professional poets into specialised facilitators. He has been the Poet-in-Residence in at St Elizabeth’s Primary School, Cardinal Pole Secondary School and The Complete Works School, all in East London, for the past seven years. Christian has been the editor of twelve poetry anthologies, written by his students since 2013.

Christian’s incorporation of Hip Hop Education and rap freestyles into lessons, has won him famous fans, from 50 Cent to Lin Manuel Miranda, amassed millions of views worldwide and made him a regular on British television and radio. When the cameras are off, Christian studies a PhD in ‘Poetry in Education’ at Goldsmiths University. 

As Chief Correspondent for ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Richard Gaisford travelled the world reporting on conflicts, terror attacks, catastrophes, natural disasters and countless other history making events.  A trusted and familiar face for more than three decades, he’s reported live from Balmoral immediately after the death of Queen Elizabeth II and was the first British journalist to broadcast live from Basra, after the city fell to British forces in 2003. More recently he has spent significant time in Ukraine, delivering reports from frontline communities. Richard was in the Middle East immediately after the October 7th attacks and was briefly kidnapped in Beirut in 2006, having been mistaken for an Israeli spy.

Whilst much of his reporting focuses on headline making tragedies, Richard also gets to see the lighter side of life. He’s followed the Royal Family abroad, reported from World Cups and Olympics. Richard has covered a wealth of stories from across the USA  charting the rise of the MAGA movement through three Presidential election campaigns. He was in the room with Donald Trump when he declared victory in 2024.

An accomplished live broadcaster, Richard has pioneered the use of new technology for breaking international events often in challenging environments.

Richard offers talks and workshops about the challenges of reporting on developing stories and important world events. He speaks with experience and authority on the importance of impartial journalism and the need to have a trusted source of news. He offers workshops about storytelling, shaping a story and presentation skills and how changes in technology have impacted news gathering.

Lorna Gibson is a self-taught author, illustrator and animator – best known for her stories and award-winning animations featuring Mr Bear, most notably Mr Bear’s Christmas which was acquired by the BBC and narrated by Stephen Fry and is being published by Scholastic. 

Having created her first animation with a tiny budget, no experience and just her iPhone to film it, Lorna loves to inspire others to believe in themselves, and in their dreams and to embrace a world of creativity and magic with whatever they have to hand. Beginning her creative journey with just a pencil or biro and a pad of paper, Lorna is passionate that creativity can be enjoyed in the simplest of ways. She is passionate that stories can be shared in many wonderful ways and enjoys guiding creative sessions from simple pencil sketches to exploring stop motion.

Jon is an award winning performer and artist who has travelled the world with his diverse repertoire of deadpan, funny and stylish, artistic oddities.

Toy elephant wrangler, varieties answer to Picasso, Zen master of the obstacle course, contraption creator, friend to bullet catching (puppet) Frank the dog

Renowned for his speed painting act Jon works across a variety of areas, often comedic, always with an anchor in visual awareness and the joy of making; skills developed through Fine Art training and as a scenic artist and prop maker.

He performs across theatre, cabaret, street theatre ,TV and corporate events. Solo, in collaborations and as a member of award winning variety troupe Slightly Fat Features.

He has appeared in sell out shows at The London Palladium and The Royal Albert Hall, made an Art Attack style video for The Kaiser Chiefs, performed at the Magic Circle, been on Blue Peter (twice), is a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe and been a guest act with Olivier Award winning La Soiree.

In recent years he has been sharing his knowledge with schools and can provide performances and workshops, both art and performance based, giving children an insight into the power and joys of lateral and creative thinking and an understanding, outside traditional academic structure, of the power in method, focus and practise.