Graphic novels have started to harness the power of the comedy duo and use it to great effect in recent years. You can walk into classrooms across the country and children will be familiar with Mango & Brash, Bumble and Snug, Narwhal and Jelly, Bird and Squirrel and now they’ll be desperate to add Peng and Spanners to the list. A sarcastic penguin and a cat who struggles with his vocabulary are not necessarily the first options you may have expected but let me assure you they work perfectly together. Despite seeming almost too opposite to each other, Peng and Spanners work in perfect harmony and their partnership provides maximum opportunity for comedy but also success in saving the day. Throughout the book, they argue and bicker over the names of superheroes, what they are meant to be doing and also how to try and do anything but it works wonderfully.

Readers will love the seemingly daft comments of Spanners and the hostile reaction they provoke in Peng. You know it’s going to happen, but it’s still hilarious each time and I found myself almost upset when Peng didn’t have anything to get irate about. He manages to do angry penguin even better than Pingu and I never thought anyone could take that crown! The story is a simple yet slightly mad concept that sets the tone wonderfully for the whole book. Peng has gone to boarding school (or bored in school as he calls it) and his new head is desperate to be given the accolade of having the best school dinners by local judges. To do this he builds a pizza restaurant, which is a big reason that Peng wanted to leave his home, but as it is about to be unveiled the restaurant goes missing. Peng and Spanners are newly acquainted and Peng is still far from sure that he wants to spend time with Spanners, but it is up to them to find the pizza palace and save the day before they get put in jail for being suspicious.

What follows is a mad adventure that has fighting robots, non stop puns and inept police. All of which blend together to create a hilarious story that moves at a wonderful pace. Readers will be rolling around with laughter one moment and then cheering for fighting robots on the next page. With books like the Investigators and Bunny vs Monkey being massive hits in primary schools, Peng and Spanners is going to find itself a lot of fans ready for its style of humour and adventure. It’s easy to look and think that it’s a book following the footsteps of others but Peng and Spanners oozes with its own charm and is written in a way that only those characters could be written. I think people need to get used to the names because Peng and Spanners are here to stay for a long while and your bookshelves will be better off for that.

Pick up your copy here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-kids?

It’s been a long time since I wrote about the work we’re doing at school using comics and graphic novels, but that is nothing to do with a lack of quality or effort. Some of the things we have been doing are things I’ve written about before, so it seemed unwise to waste everyone’s time writing about it again. However, in graphic novel club we have been experimenting with some new ideas and activities, which have paid huge dividends. So, my intention is purely to tell you about the amazing work by the children (I am purely a body in the room, they are all far more talented than I am!) and it may help some of you if you are intending to run your own club or want some decent activities to try.

Last year, I ran the club for most of the year and our goal was to create our own comics that we could share with other pupils. Sadly, we never quite got to the finished stage, but we had a lot of fun creating and the children who were in year 5 were desperate for the club to run again, even when I suggested lunch time might be more fun outside. I had a think about what we could do this year and whether we should take the same approach to the club. Eventually, I realised that the end goal could be the same but we needed to change how we got to it, and actually on reflection that meant I needed to hand over more ownership. Although I tried to structure their work in a supportive manner last year, they were slightly confined by the structural limits I put in place. I thought these would help to ensure all their work was high quality, but actually I think it played a role in lots of them changing their ideas a lot or attempting to modify their initial characters or plot. They had been tasked with creating a hero, villain, setting and rough story but a lot of them probably needed to have a few weeks creating their own characters etc. before then being guided on how they could interact or how they would work together in a story.

To start this year’s club I decided to go in differently and put more emphasis on them creating and me admiring. This way, I could make sure they were happy about what they were creating and it would help them work out how it would fit together as a story instead of me telling them how it could fit into a story. Their desire to change and adapt last year suggests they respond more to freedom, so I needed to give it to them. Our first activity was courtesy of the wonderful Authorfy, who have an unfinished page of Barb and the Ghost Blade available. Each child was given a copy and a free license to finish it how they saw fit. The only rule was that all the panels had to be used and we couldn’t have anything absolutely insane like a murderous gang of clowns firing rocket launchers. I knew they were big fans of Barb, so they loved having the chance to put their own spin on the character and story. After they had thrown out all their wild ideas, the group started to settle on more attainable ones and within two sessions (plus some time at home) they had drawn, coloured and written speech in the empty panels.

As you can see from the photos (these are about half the group) they all took a slightly different route. A personal favourite of mine was the entry that changed it to a spade instead of blade and gave us a talking spade which had contrasting ideas to Barb. A lot of them adapted the story in ways that I hadn’t even considered, ranging from a bullying intervention, dancing monsters to a good old fashioned scrap. This willingness to adapt and divert from the obvious in a lot of them made me realise that they didn’t need me to channel their ideas, they just needed a platform. As a result, we decided to have a go at making our own Battle Bunnies over the next few weeks. Using this site (http://mybirthdaybunny.com/make-your-own/ ) you can print off the original Birthday Bunny and then let the kids go wild on it and creating a new story in the style of Battle Bunny.

Again, they were all keen to modify and adapt the text to suit their style. Some remarked about how they had never been given opportunities like this before, which when you consider some of the English lessons they’ve completed it by now feels like a missed opportunity. Giving children a chance to change a pre-existing text can allow them to show skills that may not always appear in a self written piece of work or they may not consider without the prompts that are there. Very quickly I was greeted by conversations about bunnies who were filled with murderous rage while others explored the possibility of just having a mildly insane bunny instead. Either way, they were all happily creating and desperate to share their adaptations with me and each other. This activity took us about three sessions but some of that was affected by the Christmas run up, so you may be able to easily fit it into two.

Our last week was a simple task, tell me a festive story that uses up this sheet of blank panels. I will be given the finished versions of these during our first session back, but the starting entries looked brilliant and had some very different ideas. We had Santa going to the gym with Rudolph to hit their Christmas weight goals, Santa going on holiday and taking Christmas off (he was also sadly devoured by sharks) and of course people making Santa traps and using youtube to capture the man himself. Giving them the freedom of story and just providing a theme meant we spent less time re writing or starting again and more time focused on creating a festive read that would be enjoyable.

I don’t know what we will do for our next little project when we get back, but I am determined to keep giving the group more opportunity to express themselves without having to meet certain criteria from me. They need to feel empowered with their own creations and not like they have to limit them just to meet a set of rules that I set up.

Don’t forget my padlet is still up and running with regular ish updates : https://padlet.com/rruddick9zra/graphic-novels-73uh2srzpbia

You can also find these books and some manga titles that are suitable for primary here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-kids?

Secondary here: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-secondary?

These links also help to support local book shops as a donation goes to them with each sale, I also receive a small commission but we all know that is just funding my book addiction!

Recently, I was very lucky to get a copy of Drawn to Change The World by Emma Reynolds and it didn’t take long for me to realise that this is one of those books that needs to be in every primary and secondary school in the country. The book is a collection of 16 stories that have been drawn by 16 artists, each in their own individual style. In the past, I have found books with changing art styles tricky to read as fluently, some of my favourite collections have issues from guest artists that just make me long for the normal artist, but this collection uses the approach to excellent effect. Having a different style for each story really helps to focus you on that story and creates a more memorable interaction with it.

There has been a big surge over the past few years when it comes to books highlighting issues or causes happening in society. This is vital for educating people, but as always some publishers have clearly forced issues into stories which can limit the impact or cause some work to feel very tokenistic. However, this book is an example of how to convey these themes and messages in a powerful and empowering manner. Much like When Stars Are Scattered, reading Drawn to Change The World will leave people with greater knowledge of issues but also awareness of what is being done to help or support them.

Using a range of techniques, the book educates readers about causes, the inspirational figures involved in supporting them and also provides information on what these key figures are up to now. All of this is done in only a few pages, but you never feel like you are missing out on important information. Each comic focuses on purely the key messages and details required to improve your understanding. This focused storytelling is what will help to inspire readers, it shows how passion and commitment are enough to make a difference instead of causing people to feel like they need a certain skill or background to do so.

Every story is very accessible because they are short, well paced and show how the person/people have made a clear impact. Not only does this mean readers won’t be put off by long text or get lost in dense build up, but it also means that they can understand the outcomes of real life actions. Often, people will say how everyone can make a difference but people struggle to see themselves doing so, this book constantly shows how to make a difference and everyone who reads it will feel empowered to do so themselves. There is a vast range of different topics and causes covered, plus the book does a superb job of representing a vast range of different people performing them. As well as representing different ethnicities and nationalities well, there is excellent representation of the LGBTQ+, disabled and neurodivergent communities. Again, these stories are not included to tick boxes, they are chosen because these people have made a huge difference and it will allow readers to feel seen and represented at some point in the book.

Having a book that enables every member of the school community to feel seen is a very difficult thing to do but this text also does an amazing job of showing everyone how they can make a difference to the world. Empowering, inspiring and thought-provoking, DTCTW is a book that needs to be in every school. It can be used to inform during assemblies, serve as the basis for excellent guided reading or discussion lessons and there is plenty of of opportunity to inspire writing, art work and further study. I honestly cannot recommend this book enough and urge everyone to grab a copy for their library or class.

You can use my bookshop link below to get yours, you should be able to find it at all other book sellers too.

https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-kids

If you haven’t already heard about it, Meesh the Bad Demon is a new graphic novel from Michelle Lam that is the first in the series. The book was released last week and I have no doubt it is going to be a very popular choice in KS2 classrooms. Despite being almost 300 pages, I think there will be plenty of children in LKS2 that will adore Meesh and her first adventure. The artwork is enticing and there is plenty of action throughout to keep the story moving at a breakneck speed. For my stop on the tour I am going to explore how you can use the book on your classroom to support teaching. If you want to buy a copy of the book you can find it using this link here:

https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/great-graphic-novels-for-kids

How to use Meesh the Bad Demon in class:

There’s lots of different ways that the book could be used in class especially in regards to writing prompts and setting description. However, I am going to focus on how it could be used to support discussions in PSHE. I would suggest using page 24-27 for this particular activity but there lots of other sections in the book that would lend themselves to purposeful discussions. In the pages (shown below) discusses her life and how she often feels like she doesn’t fit in at her workplace but has come to live with it The conversation explores the idea of embracing unique traits and not trying to conform to be the same as everyone else.

There’s a range of different ways to approach these pages, but my first instinct would be to hone in on the first panel and the idea of what it means to belong. Get the class to think about situations where they might have felt they didn’t belong or explore the opposite concept and think about where they feel they can truly be themselves. Why are some places or people better for behaving like this? What causes us to feel like we aren’t fully welcomed or free to show our personality? Exploring questions like this may require some extra prompting or examples from your own experience but it should allow lots of rich discussion about how we feel differently in different places or situations. It’s important to make everyone realise this is normal but also to explore how you can combat this. An effective short task would be to get the class to write a short list of advice for people on what they can do when they feel uncertain in a setting, simple tips that could help them feel more comfortable or simply to relieve their fears.

After focusing on times when you may not fit in, I would then move onto page 26 when Gran is discussing how it isn’t always a bad thing to be different. She follows this up by declaring her enjoyment for feeling unique which would be the next point I would focus discussion on. Explore what it truly means to be unique, how many people think they are unique but are simply following what others tell them to do? I would also try to focus on whether they embrace their unique attributes or do they try and minimise them instead? Get them to really think about their character and how things they do without thinking may be things that other people admire about them or struggle to do themselves. Remind them of abstract concepts such as being patient or caring, as much as we try to promote these values there are still plenty of people who don’t practise them or even acknowledge how important they are. They could easily do some art or writing about themselves at this point based around what makes them unique and basically what makes them who they are.

To finish, I would use the very last panel and discuss the importance of this advice. Get them to think about times when they have missed out or enjoyed something less because they were still thinking about an earlier issue/concern. The idea of being able to be annoyed but limiting how long could be something many haven’t thought about for. Empowering disappointment is something that people often try to avoid but it’s important to show pupils that it’s okay to feel unhappy about something but it’s not okay to let it consume you and become your only focus. After exploring this idea I would get each member of the class to write a short rule or precept (could tie in Wonder) that others could follow like the one Gran has used here.

These are just some ideas on how Meesh the Bad Demon could work in your class and are by no means definitive or the ultimate lesson, simply a way I would use the book to approach my teaching in a slightly different manner that could open up some rich and varied discussion. Released on August 3rd by Faber Children, get your copy of Meesh the Bad Demon now.

The Hilda series is back with a new entry that will make the perfect companion to all of her previous adventures. Instead of releasing a new adventure, this book is a guide to all of the different beasts and spirits that exist in the world of Hilda. For devoted fans it is a beautiful love letter to the various creatures that reside in Trolberg and the surrounding areas, but if you are new to the series it is an excellent introduction to the fascinating and magical world. Ever since the book touched my desk, I have had children repeatedly staring in wonder and begging to read it. Much like the others in the series, the book is full of stunning illustrations from Luke Pearson and each entry contains an excellent level of detail. The characters are explored in depth and even allowed those less familiar with the characters to quiz some of the self confessed Hilda know it alls.

When I was offered the opportunity to host the book tour, I knew that I needed to get my students involved. My current year six class adore everything about the books/show and I know that the year five children in my graphic novel group are truly obsessed too. As the book is a collection of beasts and spirits it seemed only right to create our own to add to these.

I started off by briefing the children and explaining that they had a month to come up with their own fan art or creations related to the series. Some of the group were unfamiliar with the series, so I leant them the graphic novels and gave them time to explore them. Initially a lot of the group were intimidated by the idea of coming up with their own beasts & spirits and they seemed to find the freedom of the task too much. After a session or two of trying to encourage them to loosen up and take some risks I changed the approach slightly. Together we studied the beasts & spirits book and really explored the text surrounding the creations. Reading about the habits and behaviours of them helped them to realise that these creations are more than just a drawing. Planning out the characteristics first helped the group to visualise what they wanted to create and helped to switch their focus. All of a sudden, the desire to only draw Hilda and Twig disappeared and I was constantly being told about their new characters and how they would fit into the world of Hilda. Over the next two weeks they worked hard during our lunch time sessions and also at home to create a weird and wonderful range of characters that could easily be a new addition to the wonderful book of beasts and spirits.

The final creations were wonderfully crafted and some were the result of painstaking redrafts and late redesigns but you can really tell how much each child cares for their creation. As you can see, they focused more on the mischievous or troublesome beasts and spirits but those are the ones they found the most fascinating to read about in the book. Most of the group was working up till the last moment to get their designs finished and finalised but some had spare time and chose to create some fan art of their favourite characters. Even with no time left I still had children coming to my classroom to check if they could fit in one more piece of work before I collected them all in. That was nothing to do with me, it was all to do with their love for Hilda and the truly engaging world it is based in.

If you aren’t familiar with the Hilda books then I cannot recommend them enough. They are popular across the school and are excellent value for money because they are constantly being re read by fans. For those who are fans of the series, this is a wonderful companion to the pre existing books and it is a superb way to flesh out some of the characters that haven’t had as much coverage. Hilda: Book of Beasts and Spirits is out now from Flying Eye Books and is well worth adding to any school library.

Despite it nearly being the end of term, we have been working frantically through some of our curriculum lessons this week, in a bid to catch up and ensure that the class have been taught about more than just Henry VIII during our Tudor topic. After looking at the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary during our work on Tuesday, it was time to cover the Spanish Armada on Wednesday. I won’t lie, I knew that somebody else had already planned and resourced the lesson, so I had ignored it until about 9:05, when the class were in assembly. After looking through the lesson, I could see that the suggested tasks were perfectly fine but felt like we could push them a bit further, so as always, I resorted to my safety blanket of comics. Doing a storyboard had already been suggested but I thought that might limit us a touch and my class are very enthusiastic about creating their own art/comics. Also, this would also give me some time to catch up on some admin that needed addressing thanks to the joy of assessments last week. Comics it was then.

After going through a powerpoint about some of the key events of the Spanish Armada along with the political and religious implications that fuelled it, the class were set on their way. We have been talking a lot as a school about making sure our work has a clear audience and purpose, this is to try and ensure that writing is effective and that standards increase. We weren’t making the most of writing opportunities at times and it was clear that sometimes the children just thought you did writing because you were told to. I explained that their comic needed to include enough detail to inform someone who knew absolutely nothing about the Spanish Armada. The idea being that if they walked into our classroom and picked up a comic, they would have a solid idea of what had happened and why. As an extra incentive, I promised that I would share some of the work online with other teachers and authors. This may seem a bit of an unfair bribe and expectant of people online, but their desire to make sure it was their best work really ramped up with the knowledge that they could potentially have a global audience. Apologies if you have been harassed by me because of this but it is for a good reason I promise.

Using the medium of comics allowed them to include some of the smaller details that may have been lost in another form. For example, when Mary Queen of Scots was executed, it is reported that the executioner apologised for having to do it. Lots of the class used speech bubbles to show that detail and you will find a lot of axe wielding characters saying “I’m sorry” in their work. Some even chose to draw a little dog hidden under Mary’s dress, had we been doing the task differently I’m not sure that this extra detail would have made it in. Another benefit of the comics was thanks to using the drawings and speech bubbles in this efficient way, the children were able to squeeze more detail and information into one page than anticipated. It also empowered those who found the artistic side more challenging to use speech to fill up drawing space, while those who loved drawing could use less speech and draw as many details in as possible. As many approached the end of the story and the Spanish were fleeing past Scotland, several Loch Ness monsters appeared to add some folklore to the piece and allow the creator to make their comic different and unique to the others. Of course, once I praised one person for a good idea, multiple versions soon appeared!

As an idea, there was nothing particularly inventive or radical about it. The main reason it worked was simply because I gave them a chance to tell a story through a comic rather than just write a generic paragraph or text about it. As I said earlier, the comic format presented them with good opportunities to add in little details and show their deeper understanding of the story, although in some cases they put more effort into this and got the events in a slightly different order! Next time you’re doing something in science, geography or history why not give them a chance to tell their story a different way and see what comes out.

This week, we had an open evening for prospective year 3 parents. As part of the evening, each class was running activities with a small group of children and then the people walking around could see some of the work we do and also had the chance to join in if they wanted to. Somebody kindly volunteered me to run a graphic novel activity and show how they can be used to support learning. Initially, I thought about going down the art route but felt like I should use the chance to do something a little bit more thought provoking and focus on how the texts can support learning in all areas of the curriculum.

My activity was called How to be a hero and it focused simply on identifying the hero in four different extracts and thinking about what made that person a hero. What were they doing on the page to be a hero and why is that behaviour considered heroic? One of the pages was from Miles Morales: Shockwaves so that there was an easily identifiable hero and one that people may be quite familiar with. Some of the young children wandering round with their parents could spot him and talked about their love of Marvel. The other pages contained less established characters and required the children to explore the page and work out either who the hero was or think carefully about why they might be considered heroes. The pages were from City of Dragons, Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy and I Survived 9/11.

To start with the group were excited to explore all the pages and talk about their experiences of reading the books in class. After the initial burst of excitement, they started to focus more on the content and drawing out conclusions from the extracts. Even the supposedly simpler page from Miles Morales led to a lot of discussion about how his heroic behaviour was more than just saving people, there was his willingness to risk harming himself to help others and we also discussed how he could potentially be helping people who aren’t nice, respectful or law abiding. This got the ball rolling and they felt more confident analysing the behaviour of the other characters and working out who was a role model to follow. After exploring all four pages it became evident that the more ‘normal’ or simply ‘human’ characters were actually more heroic than we first realised. In fact, it made it clear that all of us can be heroic on a daily basis and may not even realise it.

Discussing the bravery and courage of firefighters allowed us to look at the reward and respect they are given for constantly risking their lives despite the poor pay and difficult working patterns. When exploring Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, the group were passionate about how brave Meg was to stand up for her friend and fight for what is right. They talked at length about how she focused on what was right rather than what would be best for her. Standing up for what you believe in and fighting for equality or justice isn’t always acknowledged as a heroic act but it has the potential to change lives and improve the future which is a truly heroic act.

After all of this analysis, the group were given the chance to create their own heroes. When the sheets were given out at the start they all discussed how they were going to be making super vegetables that could fight crime, jedi based assassins and one boy was planning to create an even more muscular version of Superman. Yet, when they were actually given the chance to fill in those sheets they all created heroes that were based in reality and had very human characteristics. They focused on the personal qualities of these heroes and ensured they were good role models and fought for what was right. Some had heroes who were kind, caring and empathetic, whilst others ensured theirs would fight for equality and create a better future. Seeing them so passionate about displaying these traits showed they had really thought about how lots of people are heroes every day but are never celebrated or praised for what they do. The only downside was they ran off with their designs before I could grab some photos.

Unintentionally, I’ve been pretty quiet on here this year but I aim to explain why and explore what I’ve been up to with a small focus group of children. Apologies for the lack of images, I forgot to take any and am refusing to go into work in the first week off! In September, I started at a new school who were looking to run a project based around graphic novels. The brief was loose, but the funding they had secured was based around helping children to improve their reading, with a focus on supporting more disadvantaged pupils if possible. I had already provided some CPD for the school and then a job came up, as soon as I had accepted the position the project was put in my hands. After spending a large amount of time worrying that this would make me look like a one trick pony or limited as a practitioner, I gleefully accepted the responisbility.

Using a list created by the teachers at the end of the previous year, I selected ten children to come out on a Thursday afternoon and work with me and a TA as a group. Our first few weeks revolved around simply exploring some different books, talking about what we had enjoyed in them and just giving them a chance to find out what they enjoyed reading. Each child also answered a reading survey during this time, it focused on their perception of reading at home and school, along with giving them a chance to explain their knowledge of comics and graphic novels. As a new teacher to the school, this also gave me a chance to understand the children better, especially those who weren’t from my class. The results basically split the group into two, those who loved reading comics but nothing else and those who didn’t enjoy reading anything but would be willing to give the project a go.

Within a couple of weeks, the group was already acting positively towards their reading and our time spent discussing what they’d enjoyed lead to lots of peer recommendations. Unsuprisingly, Amulet quickly became the top recommendation and word spread quickly to those outside the group. This resulted in the headteacher popping in and after a page or two he disappeared with the group’s copy of book 1, he returned it the next day with a glowing review. After roughly half a term, we started to move on from just chatting and sharing books, this was still present in the meetings but was assigned to the first five minutes only. The next task was to start exploring pages or extracts in greater depth. I used some of my old lessons and ideas for this, we analysed vocabulary, text marked pages and focused a lot on improving inference skills. This was an identified weakness and one of my biggest argument about comics has been the help they can provide with this.

At this point of the project, I had originally planned on moving the sessions on to become basically another English lesson, my thinking being that they would improve reading and writing with this. However, after a week or two it became clear that this group was desperate to create their own work and constantly analysing other people’s was no longer getting the best out of them. In a bid to develop their all round skills but also keep them highly engaged, I changed direction and focused on them creating their own work as part of their learning. We could still develop the required skills doing this, whilst allowing them to express themselves how they wanted to. The first attempt at this involved giving them an open ended page that simply contained the words “it’s time” and had an image of a car parking by a man on a bench. Each pupil went off in a different direction, some slightly darker than others! Crucially, while they were drawing and planning out they were constantly talking about whtat their character was doing and why they were doing it. Using only two panels, they were creating back stories, future events and stretching the possibilities as much as they could. None of them realised this though, they just thought they were talking with their mates about the page.

After this session I was confident that the group could progress as I wanted but differently to how I expected. To keep them inspired and present opportunities to keep improving their writing ability (reading was taking care of itself by this stage) I decided that each member would have a go at planning and creating their own comic. Instead of just letting them go wild, each session focused on a specific aspect. Firstly, they created and designed a hero, followed by a villain before finally creating a setting. This took much longer than anticipated but some of that was because they were desperate to ensure their characters were as well developed as possible. My role was to support their ideas and then focus on how these could be expressed in the best form possible. To help with their drawing, we arranged for an artist (Arran Matthews) who had produced work for Marvel to come in and deliver two workshops, we also invited some other comic enthusiasts from the school to this in order to make the most of his expertise.

All of the work on villains, heroes and settings allowed us to recap similes, metaphors, sentence structure, powerful vocabulary and much more. Most of this was done through discussion which helped take away the stigma for some of the less confident members, it was noticeable how they were happier joining in with these very relaxed discussions and it was beneficial to their writing and most importantly their thought process. No longer were they settling for the first thing that came to mind, they were looking at what they’d written and taking time to try and find the best word or structure to support that.

Initially our plan was to write the comics, print them and then sell them to students after school. Sadly, due to transition, trips and everything else that goes on with schools in the final term this didn’t happen. We did manage to squeeze in a trip to Waterstones though and pick up some new books for the group. By this stage they had read most of the limited selection and were desperate for new ones, so we used the last bid of budget remaining to visit our local store and let them all choose the next books. They loved having the power and were surprisingly well restrained, although they tried far too many times to sneak in books that we told them weren’t appropriate!

Each member of the group got about half way through creating their own comic and some were looking brilliant, but we simply ran out of time. However, even when it was clear they were going to struggle to fit it in, the group were still asking if we could find time for them to do more, still trying to attend their sessions even when special things were happening and they showed a real love for their Thursday afternoon work. I had several parents message me and say how much their child was reading and drawing at home thanks to the group and several staff members commented on how positively their students talked about going out on a Thursday afternoon. They liked being part of the group and were caught using it as a way to wind up others on occassion!

Thankfully, I managed to find time to quickly survey the group again to see if our year of work had helped them in any way or whether it was just an excuse to get out of the classroom. I spend a lot of time moaning about how data dictates school life too much, so I appreciate what I’m about to say isn’t the be all and end all. It does show the positive effect that this group had on reading attitudes though and combined with their regular teaching they made good progress in reading and writing, both in class and according to test data. The key improvement for me was their score in relation to reading enjoyment in school. At the start of the project it was a lowly 5.2/10 and if you took out the two Phoenix comic obsessed participants it would have been much lower! At the end of the project it had gone up to 8.2/10, and the main reason that all of them gave was having access to graphic novels and comics. Ironically, the score for their enjoyment of reading at home went down because they didn’t have access to the books we now had in school! They also loved having the opportunity to talk about them and recommend them to each other, showing the power of book blether and also knowing some kids lit yourself. I loved being able to join in their conversations and offer my opinion, although it nearly always ended up digressing onto what our favourite Marvel series was. Hawkeye for me if you’re interested.

Overall the project was a success, it wasn’t perfect by any means but everyone enjoyed the group and engaged positively with it. Each student made progress, some more than others but the goal was always about enjoyment first and out surveys show this. Moving forward, I will try and run something similar next year. Due to staff and time constraints it may end up being lunchtime based rather than an afternoon session but the goal will remain the same, to use comics and graphic novels to help improve pupil’s enjoyment of reading and writing.

I was first made aware of Dekko comics back in September, initially I was unsure how I felt about the concept of an educational comic. On the one hand, they are everything I want, my favourite format trying to help readers gain a greater understanding of a concept. On the other hand, it could be my favourite format possibly falling into the trap of trying to make learning “cool” or act like it wasn’t trying to teach, a bit like the uncle who wants you to think of him as a mate instead of a family member. Thankfully, my fears were completely suppressed when I laid my eyes on the comics Dekko sent me.

On first glance, the comics are vibrant and full of some quirky but brilliant visuals. Immediately, my mind was cast back to my childhood reading the Beano & Dandy, but not in a way that felt like a blatant rip off, more a homage. Each comic has a back cover that shows what subjects will be covered in the issue, along with the specific topics they will be addressing. Prior to seeing them, I had quite naively assumed that the comics would just focus on English and particularly grammar. However, I was hugely impressed to see that each comic covers a wide range of subjects and topics that can support learning across the breadth of the curriculum.

After having a brief flick through the comics, I started to explore them in more depth and think about how I could use them in not just my class but across the school. It didn’t take long to realise that they would be effective from Y3-Y6. In fact, one of the strips showed the process of the circulatory system, which we had done ourselves, earlier in year 6. Having the Dekko version at the time would have really helped some of my students who were struggling to represent the concept, the visual reminder and representation would have made it clearer for them, along with offering a chance to recap things they had forgotten.

For every comic in an issue, there is key vocabulary underlined and the words are written at the bottom of the page. On some pages, such as one on homonyms, it shows you how the words differ to each other in order to help develop understanding. These little touches allow the comic to pack in maximum information and embed the key elements of each topic on every single page. Prior to reading them, I hadn’t thought about such simple techniques being used but as soon as I saw them it made so much sense (and made me feel daft for being so shocked by its efficiency!).

Now I am not claiming that Dekko comics are about to make everyone who reads them or uses them an academic genius. But, they are a brilliantly thought out range of texts that have the potential to support classes across the curriculum and across KS2. Each issue covers a range of subjects and topics that will fit with the curriculum in most schools and could be used in a variety of ways to enhance or support learning. In some cases, it could be a simple visual reminder or explanation that children use or have on the working wall. In other cases, they could be used as inspiration for work or a building block for children to add to or extend. Either way, they are a purposeful tool that I genuinely believe has a place in every school. As I say, they aren’t the answer for every single lesson but nothing ever is and that is the key here. You buy them to support when appropriate, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how often that actually is. For some children, this may be the support that helps them to finally comprehend a topic or understand a nuance. From the four issues I have read and explored I cannot recommend Dekko comics enough, they are a friendly company that is focusing on supporting learning first instead of prioritising making money.

This year I was given the duty of preparing World Book Day for the school. Initially, I was trying to think of how I could show that I wasn’t just a one trick pony or trying to force graphic novels on everyone. However, everyone else had other ideas and requested that I did a graphic novel focus because lots of children were enjoying them but they weren’t sure how to engage this interest. Before they could change their mind, I was scheming away on how to make sure everyone had a good experience, no matter how familiar or confident their teacher was with using graphic novels. After scouring my shelves, I settled upon using Lightfall by Tim Probert, a favourite of mine and a big hit across KS2.

My first task was to find a page that would be accessible from year 3 to year 6 (450 children in this case), and would provide excellent opportunities for discussion and work in all of those year groups. I settled on page 220, which shows huge emotional vulnerability along with the stunning image of Bea being “tangled in her thoughts” (a quote from my class).

After studying the page, I thought the best option for stimulating the work would be to focus on the concept of bravery and how we perceive this trait. Each teacher was sent a rough lesson guide, full of questions. The main focus was on identifying bravery in everyday life, thinking about how we can be brave and who we consider to be brave. In my class, the children quickly identified that bravery had nothing to do with being big or strong. Instead, they felt it related to confronting your fears or pushing out of your comfort zone. When considering who they knew that represented these traits, nearly everybody chose a family member or friend. Being able to identify so many daily examples of bravery had a positive impact on the less confident pupils. As our discussion went on, more and more joined in or offered anecdotes of when they had witnessed bravery, some even started to realise that they were braver than they considered. It also gave us a good platform to talk about failing and how bravery can just involve trying something in the first place. Being able to point out that success wasn’t always a sign of bravery gave some a visible boost. In one class, a girl perfectly pointed out that Bea was “already being brave by talking about her problems” which is pointed out by Cad in the following pages.

Following this excellent discussion the children were given an open ended task that they would be able to adapt to their interpretation. Everyone was given the task of creating a comic strip that showed people being brave or confronting their anxiety. In year 5/6 we also looked at the idea of giving advice to people in difficult situations that might cause anxiety or that anxiety might stop them from joining in with.

Without hesitation, my class started thinking about how they could explore the broadest range of topics possible. I had pairs talking about ensuring they had different ethnicity in theirs and one set of girls even discussed body representation and how they wanted to draw characters of different sizes to make sure everyone felt represented. The only thing we discussed that might have inspired this was the idea of standing up for your beliefs, it was so pleasing to see the children taking this and absolutely running with it. They wanted to everyone to know they could be brave.

Along with this excellent discussion in year 6, I had several year 5 teachers coming to find me and inform me how much their children were loving the work. In one class a girl had been struggling all day with the fact she had made a wrong choice but was too embarrassed to admit it. After being present for the class discussion she felt inspired and admitted to her mistake. When she was asked why she had decided to finally confess, she explained that ” I didn’t want to but the lesson made me realise it was the right thing” which shows just how important it is to explore such rich and quality texts. Moments like this were something I never imagined would happen, but sometimes when we give children the chance to engage without always focusing on such a narrow objective or goal they can really surprise us. Days like this really allow the pupils to express themselves fully and show you how perceptive they are.

Some excellent examples of how to overcome your struggles from Y4 & 5.

After completing this task the teachers were given a wide range of other activities they could use to fill the day. However, a lot of them said their class were enjoying making their comics so much and desperate to make their work the very best it could be, so most classes barely finished because they had become so swept up with the work. Some classes managed to write some questions for Tim Probert, which we will send to him this week, while others watched some recommendation videos from members of the year 6 book club, including a brilliant top 5 graphic novels from an especially avid reader in my class. I had prepared a large range of resources to try and stop people running out of ideas but many of them were never used, due to the effort going into the comic strips. Some classes managed to find time to create a top 10 bravest characters in books, whilst others followed some drawing tutorials on The Phoenix Comic website or did a spot of book speed dating.

On the left is an excellent example of how to support each other completed by a Y3 child, on the right is a selection of wise advice from a Y6 boy in my class.

At the end of the day, there was a really positive buzz about the work and some classes were going to continue working on it the next day as the children had enjoyed it so much. Throughout the week, classes were taken to Waterstones to spend their book token and pleasingly on the Friday, several year four classes went in and basically cleared out the entire graphic novel section. In the future, we could easily do another day like this and use it to suit the appropriate occasion. You could use a range of text types, but it must be said, graphic novels work very well because you can adapt them so well to suit your skills. Children who love to write can focus more on the text, whereas those who prefer to express themselves through art can use their pictures to do the talking. Either way, the most important thing is children get the chance to talk about books and engage through quality texts instead of being rushed through various objectives to tick another box.