On Thursday 19th October, Cynthia Murphy (a horror/mystery author from Bury) visited us in the library to spend lunchtime talking to pupils and signing copies of her books.

30 of our year 7 pupils were then given the opportunity to attend an hour workshop on how to write a story opening. The pupils learnt how to build sense of dread through ambitious vocabulary and were given advice on the Gothic genre that will assist them with writing stories in their English lessons.

Cynthia showed the pupils her writing process and how she took inspiration from ordinary objects in her life and made them seem creepy in her stories.

She taught our pupils how to plan their story using the five senses (plus a spooky sixth sense) and were then given the opportunity to free write story openings based on the concept of finding an ordinary object in a strange place before volunteering to read them out to the rest of the group.