We have had the pleasure of working with Sue Upton this term and l have found her book and accompanying resources to be fantastic and incredibly helpful. As a busy teacher l appreciate the ease with which l could access and utilise the resources available on the website. The book is pitched perfectly to engage the audience and be used as a stimulus for learning.
My students were enthusiastic from the outset and asked if they could buy the book for themselves, so high praise indeed. The chapters recorded on YouTube were also useful to analyse as the students have created audio books, so we examined the expression, pace and tone when reading.
The scheme of work is amazing and offers lots of cross-curricular and stimulating activities, it saved me lots of time and offers motivating and engaging tasks for the students. I am incredibly grateful for all of Sue's hard work.
N Fountain
KS3 Teacher
Here's what Emily Simpson, Assistant Headteacher: Key Stage 3 at Biddenham International School & Sports College had to say...
Where do I start? Paper Boats & Butterflies: from the front cover to the content inside provides readers (of all ages) with the power to become creative, critical thinkers. I contacted Sue because I was blown away with her ability to draw readers from all ages and interests into the book with relevant themes and imagery that our year 8 students could relate to.
Initially, I contacted Sue to be a guest speaker at my school as a local author and once in contact I learnt that she was incredibly flexible with what she could offer us and also had a range of resources on offer. The beauty of the resources is that you can pick and choose what you would like to use from her website, and you have the set text to support the quality of the content of the resource.
Sue was able to work with us from the beginning of our project to the end. Our project was run through our project based learning sessions so she provided us with a launch video and also completed a Q&A session for us based on questions our students had asked (this couldn’t be live because we were in the depths of Covid).
But, completely adaptable, this did not stop Sue in supporting our project. Our students were writing 500-word stories and she offered to judge and present awards to the successful students. Sue is personable and uses her experiences as a teacher and leader to meet the needs of the school and the project.
I highly recommend the book, resources and Sue. Our students are now inspired to write, and it is thanks to Sue for making it such an authentic project for them. Sue, I cannot thank you enough. You are an inspiration to many and clearly have the needs of all students at the heart of what you do. I look forward to working with you again soon.
Emily Simpson