Preparing for school visits

Illustration © Bro Vector / Adobe Stock
Picture of Ian Billings

Ian Billings

Ian is a children’s TV writer, playwright and author of 23 children’s books. He is a member of the Children's Illustrators and Writers Group (CWIG) committee.
CWIG committee member Ian Billings on how authors can best prepare for school visits

The thought of stepping into a school can send a terrifying shiver down the back of the hardiest of children’s authors. What will the students be like? What do they expect? What do the teachers want? What will they ask? Will I get out alive?

Relax, breathe deeply. Let me hold your hand. I’ve worked in over 2,000 schools in 20 different countries, so I’ve got a bit of insight to share.

First things first, with dwindling budgets, fewer and fewer schools have money to spend on books, let alone author visits. I spoke to a Head once who told me my fee was equal to her entire literacy budget for the year. I used to visit two or three a week; now it’s more like two or three a month. But with a new government, we can hope that the situation may change.

If you do have an author visit planned, here are a few useful things to consider.

Planning

First, plan your sessions. Who are your books aimed at? Choose your age group. People forget there is an enormous gulf between the year groups in primary schools, and what suits Year 1 would be pooh-poohed by Year 6. Decide not just which age group you prefer, but which age group you feel most comfortable speaking to.

Schools usually ask for a visit to classes and a presentation to the whole school. Workshops can be anything from 30 mins to an hour. In the workshops, get them doing stuff. Don’t talk too much. Once they are hands on, conversation naturally arises. The younger the group, the more doing; the older the group, the more listening. There are a thousand and one things you can do. Make them pertinent to your book, relevant to the curriculum – and make them fun! Presentations are different. I always do 45 minutes, but offer different presentations for different age groups – one for KS1 and one for KS2.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

This is where it gets sticky. Technically, a visitor who is not left alone with children does not need a DBS to work. But try telling that to a secretary guarding the door handle. I always take one out as a point of good business practice and produce it when asked. I also carry public liability insurance in case of anything going wrong.

  • Upgrade your SoA membership to Membership PLUS for an extra £10 per year for £10 million worth of public liability cover through Hencilla.
  • The Society of Authors provides DBS clearance for authors through a third-party provider, Credence. You can download the guide to applying for DBS using Credence, below.

Bookings

There are good agencies out there that you can join – simply Google ‘School Workshops’. Some charge a small annual fee, some charge per enquiry.

Schoolworkshops.com – the UK’s leading directory of educational school workshops.

Contact an Author – a great directory that helps schools, libraries and organisations to book authors for their events.

Authors Aloud UK – specialises in arranging author, illustrator, poet and storyteller visits to schools, libraries and other venues in the UK.

All are highly respected outfits, with whom I have been happy to work. There are a few to avoid, too, so it’s worth sticking with agencies that have been recommended to you.

Fee

It used to be standard to charge £300 for a day (as endorsed by the Arts Council) and it stayed at that point for nearly a decade. These days £450 to £650 is a more realistic reflection of the work involved. Once again, it all depends whether the school has the budget. You can negotiate and if you’re starting out, do a few freebies in a local school and see how you take to it. You may hate it and prefer the sanctuary of your keyboard, or you may take to it and never want to do anything else.

I charge a single price no matter where I travel – and this includes expenses of food and hotel. That means I lose out if it’s a long drive with an overnight, but then I benefit if it’s local. I simply got fed up of calculating all the expenses. Many authors do charge for a hotel, though. You do it your way. And any expenses the school doesn’t cover are tax deductible, of course.

Enquiries

Try and respond to enquiries within an hour, or at least within the day. Teachers are ludicrously overburdened with work and you could easily lose a booking if you don’t get back to them sharpish.

I always provide a full sheet of what I offer in detail, with a breakdown of the sessions and the presentations for varying age groups and what they’ll be expected to do, and a list of what they should provide me – a board to write on, paper and pencils for the children, lunch, a parking space, etc. I always specify that I expect a teacher to be in attendance throughout.

Booking

It may take a couple of emails back and forth to agree and confirm everything. Anything more than three emails and it cuts into reasonable admin. I send an invoice with all my details, bank details (including the BIC code if the school is overseas) and attach my terms and conditions for further clarity.

The visit

Always be confident, assured and polite with everyone. Be clear what your expectations are and what you won’t do. The vast majority of schools you’ll visit will be a delight and they will love you.

If you want to sell and sign books, remember that children don’t carry spare cash. I send a book order form in advance for teachers to copy and distribute to the children so they will bring money on the day. This usually happens at the end when parents are lurking and usually come to have a sniff around your table. You can also ask a local bookshop to do a form that the school can pre-order from in advance, so the books are waiting for you to sign when you arrive.

Afterwards

Always send a thank you note. You may well find them sending you some samples and a thank you card as the children’s immediate literacy project after you’ve gone. I always point out where the books can be bought online for those who missed out on the day. And I sometimes ask if they’d like to book me again for the same time next year.

Chasing fee

Very, very rarely have I ever had to chase a fee.  And when I do it’s almost always not the teacher’s fault. There’ll be some pedantic process which only pays out if you submit your invoice on the third Tuesday of every second month using only the official prescribed paperclip. They are few and far between. But once again, be firm and polite. Do contact the Society of Authors if you need help enforcing a contract with a school.

Finally…

School visits can be hard work. Kids are relentless, inquisitive and energetic, and it’s tough. Remember:

  1. you don’t have to do it every day like a teacher, and
  2. you are an important role-model in their lives, making indelible impressions that children will remember forever.

I once received fan mail a decade after a visit. Our visits and our work are vital to the core of everything we are and want our communities to be. To light the spark in a young mind, causing a blaze of possibilities in their imagination, is the greatest honour and the highest calling. Do it well.

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Peter Barker
Peter Barker
21 October 2024 10:22

I note that it is stated that “technically” an author who is not left alone with children does not need a DBS check. I thought this was established in 2009 by the conclusion of the dispute between Philip Pullman and Ed Balls, minister at the time. It should be noted that if it is accepted that a DBS check is required, there can be no objection to a requirement for authors to have safeguarding training, updated bi-annually. And do not forget the photo ID. My view is that a high price is paid for giving into the safeguarding lobby as… Read more »

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