STORY-TELLING has been the flavour of the week at one school.

Woodleigh School, Langton, invited three authors to speak to their children as part of its story-telling week.

John Brindley, author of The Rule of Claw, J P Taylor, author of Shadowman, and Jill Jennings, author of Pyjama Jones, visited the school along with James Dakin, a specialist literary teacher.

Children in years three and four also had a tour of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.

Tom Tolkien, head of English at Woodleigh, said: “It was great to see Jill Jennings back here again, because she visited us two years ago when she first wrote Pyjama Jones, to ask our pupils to suggest improvements to her novel, which was then a work-in-progress.

“Jill started by talking a little bit about how she puts her stories together using sequences, viewpoints and tenses, and then she split the children into groups, each with a different section of the plot to work on.

“J P Taylor used to be a postman in Pickering, and now he is a famous author, so when he spoke to years five to eight I think they were rather inspired.

“John Brindley told us a story about the future, where genetic modification had affected humans, and he was a real hit with the children.

“Two of our year seven and eight pupils have taken his email address and say they are already working on their first novel.”

The school has been making a name for itself as a hub of literary talent, after years seven and eight came second in the Yorkshire final of the Kids Lit Quiz.

Woodleigh’s team of Millie Jo Castleton 13, Fred Weeks, 12, Ellenya Smith, 12, and Patrick Litten, 11, from Middleton, faced 50 other teams from across Yorkshire in the quiz.