Former Children’s Laureate Says D&G Students a Delight After Big Dog Tour
More than 2,200 pupils take part in author tour and events across 50 schools from Canonbie to Portpatrick
Six authors, poets and storytellers have toured around 50 schools across the region bringing tales of magic, adventure and fun to thousands of Dumfries and Galloway students.
The third annual Big Dog Schools Tour, organised by Wigtown Festival Company (WFC), is the biggest yet – for the first time visiting secondary as well as primary schools.
Taking part were former children’s laureate Joseph Coelho (the Luna Loves series and Werewolf Club Rules), Michaela Morgan (All Together Now and Walter Tull’s Scrapbook), Alan Windram (pictured above) (One Button Benny and Kenny the Orange) and David C Flanagan (the Uncle Pete series).
The team was completed by Maureen Philips from PAMIS (which works with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD)), and Wigtown’s very own storyteller and writer Renita Boyle.
Together they ran interactive sessions featuring storytelling, music, reading and a host of other activities for around 1,500 children and young people aged 3 to 16.
On top of this there were four live streamed events which allowed other young people to take part.
Joseph Coelho (pictured left), who led the secondary school visits, said: “Having the opportunity to meet with students and teachers across Dumfries and Galloway for the Big Dog tour has been a complete honour, the students were a delight coming up with brilliantly inventive ideas for poems from rhymes about favourite cartoon characters to creating worlds composed of food, water and even glass.”
The tour, from 24-28 November, took place across the region from Canonbie to Portpatrick and Moffat to Port William, and delivered 10 sessions especially for PMLD pupils. It also puts a focus on schools in areas of multiple deprivation.
Anne Barclay, WFC Communities Director, said: “The Big Dog Schools Tour is all about giving children a love of reading. All the research shows that children who read for pleasure tend to do better in later life.
“The authors, poets and storytellers on the tour are just brilliant – they see this as an essential investment in the future of our young people.
“The tour is growing every year – and the feedback is great. Teachers tell us the children are so much more engaged with reading after they meet authors and storytellers, and the children love going home and reading the stories they have heard with their families.
“And we want as many young people as possible to benefit which is why we are so pleased to be working with PAMIS and were delighted when the schools themselves invited us to start going to secondaries as well as primaries.”
The Big Dog Schools Tour is supported by Developing the Young Workforce, ANCBC, The Foyle Foundation, DG Unlimited and Cairndale Hotel and Spa.
Michaela Morgan
Renita Boyle and Maureen Philips
David C Flanagan