Festival LIVE! events

Let the adventure begin!

Thu 4th March to Wed 11th March

Laugh with WOW writers, draw with the illustrator of Harry Potter Japanese edition, learn how to create a comic and write a mind-blowing poem in a single session. Daily, you will find unmissable events to enjoy!

How: browse the programme below and purchase your tickets. Events are priced free to £5. You can alternatively buy your Festival pass for £20.

A FESTIVAL PASS entitles a whole family to all events. When you buy your Pass, you will receive a PROMO CODE that will let you then select the events you want free of charge*. (*excludes Alligator's Mouth Comic Clubs)

On the day, join the event on Zoom from your home.

Buy your tickets or pass here: buytickets.at/thevineyardschoolpta/482187


Buy the festival books here: thealligatorsmouth.co.uk/vineyard-wbd via the Alligator's Mouth bookshop for click and collect in their shop


See you there,

Mrs Cross, Miss Clough, Miss Jobbins, Mrs Axbey, Zsofia Dedinszky, Chiara Parodi, Millie Dutto or, the Vineyard Book Festival team XO


NEW! Win how to Academy event tickets when you buy tickets or a pass. Raffle on Friday 12/3!

Watch on your own time!

David Litchfield reads and
ALIEN draw-along!

Joseph Coelho reads his new book, THANK YOU

Past events:

Thursday 4th March

Charlotte Williams: Pablo the Rescue Cat

Time: 3.45 pm (30 mins) / Price: £3

Host: Miss Clough

Audience: KS1 (4-8 years)

A little girl searches for that special something to make her home complete. When she visits the animal shelter she finds the answer. Join Charlotte's engaging reading of this mysterious story to finally know, can Pablo the rescue cat rescue her?

More about the book HERE.

What you always wanted to know: Book Publishing

Time: 5 pm (40 mins) / Price: £3

Host: Mrs Mingolla

Audience: KS2 (7-11 years)

From writing through editing to the book stores - how are books made? Margherita Trotta (star editor for Mondadori), Zsofia Dedinszky (publishing wiz for Frances Lincoln) and Ellen Alpsten (heroine author of Tsarina), Vineyard parents, will tell you everything you ever wanted to know. Featuring Maya (Y7), an intrepid self-published Vineyard alumna author of The Run (from Fri 5/3 also in the school library website)!

Comic Club at Alligator's Mouth

Time Travel Comics!

Time: 4 pm (1 hour) / Price: £10 (£1 of every sale will go to Book Aid International) - This is an external event

Host: Mark @ Alligator's Mouth

Audience: Year 3-4

Join this World Book Day special Comics Club event for pupils of the Vineyard!

Friday 5th March

Author & Illustrator Event

Time: 1.15 pm (1 hour) / Price: £3

Host: Ms Fletcher Brown

Audience: Year 2 - 6 (6-11 years)

Paul Coomey is an exciting new talent and will share his first book, 'Stick Boy' with us. His Middle Grade book using graphic novel elements, is an accessible and entertaining read that brings laughter and joy to being unique.

Paul’s experience as an art director gives him insight into the work that goes into designing a book from start to finish, and he’s keen to inspire young creators to give it a go, no matter their skill level.

An unmissable event for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates and Timmy Failure.


Draw with Dan, the illustrator of the Harry Potter Japanese version

Time: 4 pm (1 hour) / Price: £5

Host: Miss Clough

Audience: KS2 (7-11 years)

Dan Schlesinger's artworks are prized around the globe. He is well known in Japan as the illustrator of the Harry Potter series, which sold more than 22 million copies.

Drawing Hedwig, anyone?

Dan will show you gorgeous Harry Potter character illustrations, tell you the secrets of how he creates the covers, and will invite you to draw Hedwig him, stroke by stroke!

You can later stick your Hedwigs on your windows for your friends to see!

Bet not only the Dursleys will be wondering about the sudden apparition of such an original collection of owls around our school...

Bedtime stories by your teachers

Time: 6 pm, 6.30 pm, 7 pm, 7.30 pm / FREE (ticketed)*

Audience: ALL AGES - separate sessions

Put on your pyjamas and listen to one (or more!) of our marvellous teachers reading you a story!

*Note that this is a free event but you still need to "buy" your tickets so we can manage the Zoom links.

Schedule of readings:

6 pm Mrs Mingolla reads Lucy Ladybird by Sharon King-Chai to Year Reception

6 pm Mr Rosewell reads The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister to Year Reception & Year 1

6.30 pm Miss Clough reads My Pet Star by Corrinne Averiss to Year 1 & 2

6.30 pm Mrs Axbey reads The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka to Year 1 & 2

7 pm Miss Finn reads The Missing Bookshop by Katie Clapham to Year 3

7 pm Mrs Whymark reads The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle to Year 2, 3 & 4

7 pm Miss Wells reads Scribbleboy by Philip Ridley to Year 4

7.30 pm Miss Reilly reads Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor by Patricia Volda to Year 5

7.30 pm Miss Jobbins reads Snow and Rose by Emily Winfield Martin to Year 6

7.30 pm Mr Collier reads A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton to Year 5 & 6

Monday 8th March

Alison Bender - Writing your future

Time: 5 pm (40 mins) / Price: £3

Host: Ms Foster

Audience: Y5-Y6 (9-12 years)

Order your Little People Big Dreams sports books here: https://buytickets.at/thevineyardschoolpta/495720

Have you ever dreamed of interviewing Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi? Have you fancied being a TV presenter? Do you want to travel the world and be paid for it? Well, this could be the talk for you...

Alison, who is also a school parent, has started writing her autobiography and will be talking to you about writing YOUR future. Join her as she helps you focus on your passions and how you can turn them into reality.

Tom McLaughlin - Author & illustrator event

Time: 4 pm (30 mins) / Price: £3

Host: Mrs Cross

Audience: Y3-Y4 (7-9 years)

Tom McLaughlin writes pictures and doodle words for Bloomsbury, Puffin, Oxford University Press, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, The Guardian, Disney, Nickelodeon.

Join his action-packed session for storytelling, live drawing and to hear about his journey from cartoonist, to illustrator and writer. Tom will describe how he found the courage to write for the first time despite suffering from dyslexia and how it affects, and influences his work.

Get ready for lots of laughs and fun!

Cate Douglas: Poppy's Tail

Time: 3.45 pm (30 mins) / Price: £3

Host: Miss Clough

Audience: YR-Y1 (4-6 years)

Poppy dreams it would be fun to have a tail. But which kind will she choose?

She tries out many different animal tails, then invents her own and finds lots of amusing and original ways to use it.

Showing its vibrant illustrations and light-hearted rhyme, Cate will read Poppy's Tail, captivating children's imagination and entertaining them. ​

More about the book HERE.

Harry Potter: The Philosopher's Stone Kahoot! quiz - by Y6's Matteo and Anoushka

SOLD OUT!

Time: 6 pm (estimated 45-60 mins) / £1

Host: Mrs Mingolla

Audience: ALL AGES

Prizes: KS1 and KS2 winners and NEW! best dressed

Required: 2 devices - one of them with the Kahoot! app/browser for answering the questions, the other to connect to the event via zoom

LUMOS! You live like you are in Hogwarts. It's that first Harry Potter page that changed your life forever.

Dress up as your fav character and by the hands of Mrs Mingolla, Matteo and Anoushka enjoy a surely memorable quiz.

Tuesday 9th March

Professional storyteller, Hannah Need presents 'Share a story'

Time: 3.30 pm, 4 pm, 4.30 pm, 5.15 pm / Price: £3

Host: Mrs Cross

Audience: Separate sessions

3.30 - Reception

4 pm - Year 1-2

4.30 pm - Year 3-4

5.15 pm - Year 5-6

Storytelling is one of the most ancient artforms, and continues to this day as a vibrant part of culture throughout the world. We are pleased to welcome Hannah Need, a professional storyteller also known as ‘The Storyteller of Southfields’ to entertain the children with four interactive storytelling sessions celebrating World Book Day.

Hannah describes her job as the best job in the world. She tells stories to children, adults, or anyone who will listen! The stories she tells are often traditional tales, but she can’t resist adding a twist or two...


Hannah will weave her storytelling magic and enthral the children with tales which centre around stories from around the world, with a nod to International Women’s Day (March 8th 2021).


Children will discover that storytelling is a very different experience to being read to, with the stories being more immediate and compelling as the plot thickens...

Wednesday 10th March

In conversation with: MG Leonard

Time: 2 pm (1 hour) / Price: £5

Hosts: Miss Jobbins and Mr Collier

Audience: KS2 (8-12 years)

M.G.Leonard is the author of the imaginative Beetle Boy trilogy and the gripping Adventures on Trains series. Her books, which have been nominated and received multiple literary awards in the UK and overseas, have been translated into over 40 languages.

Maya has also superb storytelling skills.

In this full of action event for our school, she will share how she creates her stories, perform a memorable book reading of Beetle boy, and will answer your innermost curious questions.


Isabelle Duncan: The Taj Tigers and other cricket commentator stories

Time: 3 pm (40 mins) / Price: £3

Host: Ms Foster

Audience: Y2-Y6 (6-12 years)

Isabelle, a multi-talented cricket commentator, BBC broadcaster, and sports writer is also the author of the Taj Tigers.

She will share how her career in sports, meeting unbeatable sportwomen and men, inspired her to write the Taj Tigers, the story of a slumdog child who achieves the unthinkable in the sports world.

Take your seats, enjoy her book reading and dare to ask her your most burning questions about it all.

Harry Potter: all 7 books Kahoot! quiz - by Y6's Matteo and Anoushka

Time: 5.30 pm (1 hour) / Price: £1

Host: Mr Collier

Audience: KS2 (8-12 years)

Required: 2 devices - one of them with the Kahoot! app/browser for answering the questions, the other to connect to the event via zoom.

HA! You thought you knew it all - even Minerva McGonagall's previous career or what Fred and George once turned Ron's teddy into?

Our school has serious Harry Potter fans like you. Rub your shoulders with them in a fun competition for accuracy of facts. Epic.

WIN! The winner gets an audio or ebook from the Pottermore Shop and there will be prizes for 2nd and 3rd in the podium - on top of the glory of being the winners of the school's first ever Harry Potter masters quiz!

Thursday 11th March

Children's Poet, Simon Mole presents: a step by step poetry workshop

Time: 3.45 pm (KS1) / 4.45 pm (LKS2) / Price: £3

Host: TBC

Audience: Y2-Y6 (6-12 years)

Do you think poetry isn’t for you? It isn’t exciting and doesn’t inspire your creativity? Well think again...

Simon’s positive, passionate and inspirational approach will guide your child to write a poem during the workshop showing them that poetry is accessible to all. Crucially, he makes poetry fun! Join him as he shares his writing secrets with you...