Village pub hosts link up for school with author Michael Rosen
A village pub, which has opened as a daytime cafe for families, hosted a special link-up with children’s author Michael Rosen with pupils of their local primary school.
The Brass Windmill, in Helpringham, is run by Katie and Tony Carter and on Thursday (November 13) Katie, a former deputy headteacher, decided to host a Michael Rosen Day with his theme, Funny Food Poetry.
They provided youngsters and their families with colouring books, a themed maze, pencils, cushions and books to enjoy beside the fireplace, whilst live streaming Michael Rosen’s Poetry Party national workshop for schools on their large projector TV for all to enjoy.
The cafe opened early especially and they were approached by Helpringham Primary School’s new headteacher Helen Kay to bring in 15 nursery and reception pupils, along with successful winners of the school’s own poetry competition held last week.
Katie said that since opening the cafe, she and Tony have been working to strengthen community links, making the pub more of a daytime hub for locals, parents and families to meet for coffee and cake.
The cafe is usually open Wednesday to Friday but they have expanded it to be child-centred as well, to make it more welcoming.
Having got more involved since swapping teaching to studying for a psychology degree, Katie said this was the first child-centred event they have tried, based on her teaching background. They also welcomed a few individual families too.
Headteacher Mrs Kay said they had a wonderful morning at the cafe's Poetry Party.
“The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to Michael talking about different foods, creating hilarious rhymes for the children to join in with,” she said.
“He read his poem, Chocolate Cake and then the children tucked into some delicious themed bakes that were on sale in the cafe.
"Our visit ended with Katie, the owner of the Brass Windmill Cafe, reading Michael Rosen's popular book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt. It was great fun!”
She added: “It was wonderful to take the children out of school to this special event, enriching their learning around poetry and story-telling.”
Katie said the children joined in all the actions during the workshop and made use of the activity packs, as well as fruit and juice. Katie said: “When I taught in Halifax we did things to support the parents, with a story cafe in school, getting parents in to read with their children or stay and play, with refreshments, as it was a deprived area.”