Dinner - Speaker Martin Bradley plus Project at Abbotswood School.
Mon, Aug 1st 2016 at 7:15 pm -
Martin has written illustrated books for children about endangered birds of prey. He has also done a whole day project at Abbotswood School which we have supported financially.
Report by Ken Ball:
"On August 1st 2016 we had the long awaited presentation by Martin Bradley, a local author and illustrator of poem based children’s books. His books follow the lives of iconic British Birds, and aim to inspire and educate the younger generation whilst encouraging children to draw and participate in fun activities.
Martin brought along many items including preserved examples of these beautiful birds to enhance his presentation. His books have been extremely well received and each has forewords from leading conservationists like Chris Packham and Lolo Williams. His books have been accepted by The Hamilton Trust the largest UK primary school resource provider.
Martin gave a superb presentation detailing his journey from an Engineer at Esso Refinery to following his passion for wildlife and becoming an author and illustrator. He also gave a first insight into his latest project detailing the life of the beautiful Kingfisher. Before all his time was spent on creating the books, Martin was a keen low handicapped golfer and generously gave a signed print, and copies of his books to be auctioned at our forthcoming Charity Golf Day. Martin hoped that his books will find their way into every UK Primary and Junior School reaching out to young wildlife lovers and future conservationists.
With this in mind our Rotary Club had previously arranged a pilot project with the largest Junior school in Hampshire, namely Abbotswood, to which we had strong links via recently retired teacher Anne Stephens. At the end of June Martin was invited as guest on their Book Day and did a presentation to the whole school, then to individual year groups. The whole day was exhausting, but a huge success and received very positive response from the teachers. The school also praised the New Forest Rotary Club for its willingness to help fund the day and bring such a unique and worthwhile experience to the pupils. In each book was enclosed a certificate, aimed at the parents to read, explaining the work of Rotary in the Community, and details of how they can learn more about the New Forest Rotary Club. We plan to help Martin with future presentations to local schools, in the New Forest.
Members were full of praise for Martin’s artistic talents, his enthusiasm and inspirational presentation, making for an enjoyable Friends and Family evening. Martin was delighted that several members bought copies of his books for younger family members.
Unfortunately due to the holiday period many members were unable to attend but details of
Martin’s journey and books can be found on
www.skyhuntersbooks.co.uk"
Ken Ball, who organised the schhol visit, asked for feedback from the school on the visit. He received the following:-
Good Morning Ken,
It’s absolutely no problem at all to be able to report back to you on Martin’s visit to Abbotswood earlier this year.
Martin very kindly visited Abbotswood for what was effectively the whole day. He undertook four separate workshops for some of our pupil premium children where he took time to introduce himself and his books, engage the children with a short quiz and then spent time teaching the children how to draw some of the birds from his stories. He even finished the day with a quick spot in our assembly with a talk about his great passion of conservation.
Following Martin’s visit, Abbotswood have booked him to come into school again for our Year 4 ‘hook’ day. At the start of each new term, the children are introduced to their new topic of learning with a fun and engaging activity.
The children were enthralled, so much so that I am trying to get Martin here at my new school for something similar with our art teacher.
Thank you so much for choosing Abbotswood as the pilot school for this new and exciting initiative.
If you need any other information please let me know.
Kind regards
Kristin
SEE http://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/page.php?PgID=609509&ClubID=664 FOR MARTIN'S FURTHER CONTACTS WITH SCHOOLS ON OUR 'WHAT WE DO' PAGE