Author Dan Freedman Visits Highlands

On 31^st January 2019, author of the Jamie Johnson series, Dan Freedman, visited Highlands to take part in a video conference with several other Redbridge Schools. The conference was an opportunity for our children to meet one of their favourite authors, listen to him speak about his inspirations and share their own unique abilities.

Prior to the conference, Dan asked several schools to create a football chant and then prepare it for performance during the VC. The winners would be chosen by Dan and presented with a bundle of some of his books. Always ready for the challenge, 20 of our most creative year 6 Highlands family, wrote, practised and perfected a chant ready for Dan’s ears.

Fighting off nerves, our children performed their chant with typical Highland’s gusto. Although we didn’t win, Dan was impressed and praised the children for their lyrics, which tied into their World War 1 learning from the Autumn Term.

After the competition, the children had the chance to ask Dan some questions about being an author and his own life. Dan imparted his inspirational message of never giving up on your dreams and to chase them like Jamie does in his books.

All good things must come to an end and Dan finished with a reading from his new book, Unbreakable, which isn’t even out yet! Smiling and feeling inspired our children thanked Dan and returned to class grateful for experience.

On behalf of the Highlands Family we’d like to thank Dan for giving our children such a brilliant opportunity.