On Friday 8th March 2024, a day after World Book Day, Singlewell Primary School warmly opened its doors to one of the best-selling authors, Tọlά Okogwu. As we know, Tọlά Okogwu is an award-winning children’s author, and she shares the value and importance that we attach to reading at our school, which made her the perfect person to inspire our children’s love for reading and at the same time, inspire creative writers.

During her anticipated visit, she held workshops with all pupils which took them on a journey into a world of books inspired by her life experiences and opened them all up to a realm of imagination and creativity.

There was also a book signing session. A huge thank you to all our families for their involvement and to everyone who purchased a book. Book sales were overwhelmingly brilliant, and we are grateful. Pupils had the opportunity to meet Tọlά personally and have their books signed. She even recommended other books not written by her to further expand children’s horizons.

After spending the day with Tọlά Okogwu, this is what the children said…

Year R – ‘’She signed our books. She wrote Daddy Do My Hair.’’

Year 1 – ‘’We have never seen a real author before and she was funny’’.

Year 2 – ‘’We love that we were able to create and make up our own stories on the spot’’.

Year 3 – ‘’ Tọlά came into our school to tell us about her life and about Nigeria. When Tola's character Onyeka was on the PowerPoint we shouted ‘Onyeka! and I liked when she asked for volunteers to wear a mask and a cape.’’

Year 4 - "We liked that it was the actual author of the books we know coming in. I thought she was really interesting as well.’’

Year 5 – ‘’We really liked her as a person. She was inspiring and we liked how she told us about her journey to writing books.’’

Year 6 – ‘’It felt overwhelming as I have never seen a real author face to face. It was really good to hear her talk about her hair and the African culture because sometimes I feel like my hair is not like other people and it was nice for someone to talk about that.’’

From all the staff and families of Singlewell Primary School, we would like to say a massive thank you to Tọlά Okogwu for her time with us and leaving a positive memory of books and about authors that will last for a very longtime.