We were delighted to welcome Matt Oldfield into school to round off a busy World Book Day week and speak to students in year 7 and year 8. 

Matt is an award-winning author who mainly writes sporting non-fiction titles. His ‘Ultimate Football Heroes’ series, which he wrote together with his brother Tom, is the most frequently borrowed series in the library here at KLB. Excitingly, Matt also wrote one of this year’s World Book Day books, so we were lucky to have booked him to visit us! 

Matt spoke to each year group in an assembly explaining how his love of reading and sport inspired him and his brother to create a series of books that they would have loved to read when they were young. He talked about his career path to becoming an author and using qualities that famous footballers also possess: resilience, focus and determination. As well as a bit of friendly football banter there was an opportunity to ask Matt questions at the end of his talk. There were so many hands up with a question that this could have gone on for another hour! Fortunately, Matt was in the library during lunch time to meet with students, sign their books and answer any previously unanswered questions. There was a wonderful buzz in the room and at one point, a queue of students that nearly reached outside the library door! 

During the last period of the day, Matt ran a creative writing workshop with a small group of year 7 students where he talked them though the process of writing their own short story step by step. The students were really engaged throughout the workshop and produced some wonderful pieces of writing. 

We were delighted with how the visit was received by our students and proud of how they represented the school. We hope to invite Matt back again in the future.