February 2008
In this short spring term bookings are coming in rapidly for performances and workshops. Interestingly, there is increasing demand for Mary’s creative writing workshops which are preceeded by drama workshops where Mary’s expertise is in helping pupils create their ideas in an exciting way before the writing begins. This enables all pupils, especially those with low literacy skills, to approach writing with enthusiasm.
May 2008
Mary wrote four new plays for the “Miss Miggins” series, which were performed outdoors at the Rosliston Forestry Centre at Swadlincote, Derbyshire. These were based around the four scuptures there:
The Plough: a fox cub running through a wood became trapped under a plough. It was rescued by Miss Miggins’ cat.
The Miner: Miss Miggins’ cat, riding on the back of blind pit ponies, steers them so that they can run safely across a field.
The Bird Hide: Miss Miggins’ cat gives birth to a kitten. One night the kitten is missing and is later found injured near the bird hide. The bird man tells what happened there, and all ends happily.
The Sensory Garden: Miss Miggins loses her ring in the Sensory Garden and is very upset. The ring is later found by her cat and a squirrel.
September to December 2008
During these months Mary devised a reading scheme for children aged 7-
Mary wrote the books to accompany the reading scheme as and when appropriate.
The success was an autistic boy aged seven, who in July 2008 had been described as unable to grasp the concept of reading and was unlikely to develop his reading skills as he had reached a plateau of learning to read.
He began Mary's scheme, which is particular in the way it is taught as well as the content, in August 2008. On October 28th he read, without help or mistakes, the first book written by Mary. Encouraged by this success he wanted to learn to read more and more.
He then developed his reading sufficiently to read a further two books. From December 18th to January 10th he read four more new books without help or mistakes. He is almost ready for the next book, making the seventh in total since August, and should be reading this by about January 17th.
This phenomenal success can be attributed to the way in which this particular scheme is taught and that Mary's books do not have pictures so the child is in a position of having to read the words carefully rather than guessing at the story.
Any parents or teachers interested in this reading scheme should contact Mary for further information.
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