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A group of children and two teachers dressed in colorful costumes pose in front of a large screen showing a man speaking via video call. The children are dressed as various storybook characters, including the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, a witch, a police officer, Mary Poppins, and a character with green-painted skin. The teachers are also in costume, one dressed as Paddington Bear with a red hat and blue coat, and the other as the Cat in the Hat with a tall red-and-white striped hat and whiskers drawn on her face. The children smile and stand close together, holding small props related to their costumes. The man on the screen appears to be an author, sitting in front of bookshelves, wearing glasses and stroking his chin while speaking.

Almost 200 classrooms attend virtual author event with SF Said on World Book Day!

  • News
  • Posted on: March 11, 2025
  • Partnership: Flying High Partnership

Approx. 4000 Flying High English Hub school children attend online event with children’s author

Children from 34 primary schools who work with Flying High English Hub took part in a huge virtual author event on World Book Day, with award winning children’s author, SF Said.

The writer of Varjak Paw, The Outlaw Varjak Paw, and Tyger, amongst other books, SF Said shared his journey of becoming an author with the children. He talked of his inspirations and journey to becoming published for the first time, recounting the many rejections of his work along the way.

Children joining the event came from 34 schools who work with Flying High English Hub spanning Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire, Derby City and Derbyshire, most of whom had arrived at school dressed as their own favourite story book characters for World Book Day.

Finley Lunn (age 11 years) is a pupil at Bilsthorpe Flying High Academy and said, “S.F. Said talked about how he became an author and it was really inspiring. The fact that he has been rejected so many times by different publishers…I think it was 90…really shows how resilient he is! On his 91st try a publisher said yes and look at him now! At lunch time, me and my teacher looked on Amazon to order his books for our school!”

Katy Armstrong (Flying High English Hub Lead) was an organiser of the event and said, “We know from research that children who choose by their own volition to read for pleasure have the most successful futures and we, at Flying High English Hub, want this for all children. In addition to the free training we offer to teachers and leaders, one way that we can support schools in encouraging their culture of reading for pleasure is to host virtual author events, which we do every term, to enable the children to interact with authors and be inspired by them. We’d love to see even more schools and classrooms engage in our events. Visit our website to find out how to do this.”

A group of children and two teachers dressed in colorful costumes pose in front of a large screen showing a man speaking via video call. The children are dressed as various storybook characters, including the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, a witch, a police officer, Mary Poppins, and a character with green-painted skin. The teachers are also in costume, one dressed as Paddington Bear with a red hat and blue coat, and the other as the Cat in the Hat with a tall red-and-white striped hat and whiskers drawn on her face. The children smile and stand close together, holding small props related to their costumes. The man on the screen appears to be an author, sitting in front of bookshelves, wearing glasses and stroking his chin while speaking.
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