Hiawyn oram biography of rory

Hiawyn Oram grew up in South Africa. After graduating in English and Drama from the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, she worked as an advertising copywriter before becoming a full-time writer. She's written more than a 100 children's books starting with the old classic ANGRY ARTHUR Illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura, now an ebook by MEBOOKS. Her work has been published in more than 30 languages including Russian and Chinese, Turkish, Slovak and Polish and won or been short-listed for several awards. She also writes poetry, script and lyrics for musicals and has developed and written for animated TV. Dreamworks in the US have optioned her series starring Rumblewick, an overworked cat to a reluctant witch, as the inspiration for an animated movie. THE VACKEES, a musical for which she wrote the words, is regularly performed across the country and LAST TRAIN TO TOMORROW, about the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from the holocaust, was performed by the Halle Orchestra, junior choir and actors to standing ovation. Her favourite children's book ever is THE SECRET GARDEN by F.H. Burnett and her vote for best children's movie goes to Disney's JUNGLE BOOK, narrowly pipping KUNG FU PANDA to the post. Hiawyn lives in London where, when not writing, she can be found inventing games for grandchildren and getting messy covering canvasses in paint.

Who makes learning desirable?

It is a sunny day, probably in 1997 or so. Despite a visit from my Early Years adviser – at least, I hope it was “despite” rather than “In a desperate attempt to show said adviser that a teaching Head could work effectively in the nursery outdoor environment” – I was out in the garden, watching, supporting, intervening and choosing not to intervene. I remember it involved a lot of transfer of water from the outside tap, while those not playing in the sand and water were climbing trees, running a shop…  Hesitant children were being given literally a helping hand to overcome their fear of mud; more confident Wild Things were being guided towards a way of playing that was more inclusive;  a small group were playing a game we had developed together called “1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – SMASH,” in which some children were waiting until five sandcastles had been built before they could jump up and down on them. All of these were, of course, of limited success: no single activity is likely to produce a piece of learning, perfectly formed and squeaky clean. Learning takes time, repetition, commitment from adult as well as child.

At the time – maybe as now – there was some debate about curriculum content, aims, approaches. We were moving (this is a truncated version of the development) from the Desirable Learning Outcomes through the Curriculum Guidance, until we came to the revision of the Early Years curriculum under the forbidding title of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, revision of which has brought us to where we are now, with all its supporting guidance. Maybe this fluctuation of emphasis and debate is how it should always be – provided it doesn’t slide into a power struggle like some kind of Tudor court politics, where which faction has the ear of the powerful is the indicator of what is “right” or “wrong.” At the time, in the late 90s, however, Early Years

Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday

January,February,March,April,May,June,July,August,September,October,November,December

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