In this episode, Claire interviews Vashti Hardy at the One Education Literacy Conference. Vashti is a children’s author from Sussex who is well-known for her novels ‘Brightstorm’ and ‘WildSpark’. Before becoming a writer, Vashti worked as a primary school teacher for several years specialising in English.
Vashti has always been passionate about reading and writing. During her BA at Chichester University, her dissertation research project investigated how free-writing sessions impact children’s enjoyment of writing and their self-belief as writers. One of Vashti’s secondary school teachers gave her a free-writing journal and she credits him for inspiring her to become an author, along with another teacher who read the book ‘Rebecca’s World’ to her as this opened her mind to the idea of imagination as a super power.
During Vashti’s time as a teacher, she regularly used free-writing journals with her class and ran creative writing clubs. She went on to study for an MA in Creative Writing whilst teaching. Eventually she decided to leave teaching and become a copywriter and digital marketing executive as this gave her more time to focus on her writing career.
Vashti’s debut novel ‘Brightstorm’ was published in March 2018 and the sequel to this will be released in February 2020. Her second novel ‘WildSpark’ was published in May 2019. Vashti discusses the importance of reading for pleasure and shares practical tips and advice to spark a love of writing in children.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
BEST MOMENTS
“Story time was always the most important time of the day for me.”
“Ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. Knowing that is really important for children.”
“It’s really important for children to know that everyone makes mistakes. No-one gets it perfect. It’s a team that works on a book. It’s not all about one person. It’s OK to have other people look at your writing.”
“Teaching is a hard job. It’s an amazingly satisfying job but hard.”
“For teachers, I wish that the box ticking could just disappear and there would be more space for some blue-sky thought.”
“Wanting to do something and believing you can do something are two different things... It can be quite a journey learning how to overcome that and have self-belief and have tenacity and positivity and bash down the barriers and find a way. It’s knowing that with enough hard work you can do it.”
“With writing, I always thought at the end of my life I would regret not trying. Failing is a different thing. If you’ve given it everything and you fail, at least you’ve tried your best. So I thought I’m going to really try.”
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Vashti Hardy’s website: https://www.vashtihardy.com/
Vashti Hardy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vashti_hardy
Vashti Hardy on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/hardy1463/
Golden Egg Academy: https://www.goldeneggacademy.co.uk/
BBC Sound Effects: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/
The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/
Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/
Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/
LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/
ABOUT THE HOST
Claire Riley
Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide.
Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff.
Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend.
The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.