John Bond Author visit to EYFS/KS1

8th October 2025

To celebrate the Chichester Book Festival, the younger children at Lavant C.E. Primary School were delighted to welcome children’s author and illustrator John Bond. John travelled along the coast from his home in Worthing to lead a creative workshop with the children. The afternoon was made even more special by the company of the younger pupils from West Dean C.E. Primary School, who joined in the fun.  It’s great to have these opportunities to work together within The Bishop Luffa Learning Partnership. 

John captivated everyone with a personal reading of his book Mister Long Dog, before inspiring the children to create their own illustrations alongside him. He demonstrated how his charming characters begin with simple lines and shapes, showing the children that great ideas often start small. 

In Robin Class, we have been exploring how to bring characters to life—thinking about how they look, what they might be feeling, their likes and dislikes, and how their personalities can shine through gestures and expressions. Using collaged body parts, we’ve experimented with creating different emotions and poses, then used these to illustrate our own pets and then write detailed character descriptions about them. 

We’re excited to send our finished work to John Bond—perhaps one of our pet characters will inspire his next book!