A children's authors has visited a Sidcup school to open the newly renovated Early Years Foundation Stage outdoor learning area.

Denis Bond, attended Chatsworth Infant School, part of The Pioneer Academy last week.

The children in Early Years have already started to enjoy using this outdoor area for learning but the pupils and staff of the School were particularly excited to have their local author come and open it up officially.

Before the author arrived, the children spent time learning some of his stories including The Monster Who Couldn’t Scare Anyone and The Dragon Who Couldn’t Help Breathing Fire and the staff spent time recognising some of the characters from his books.

A giant mod-roc dragon had been made especially by support staff, Mrs Solly who also spent the day dressed as a dragon, a character from one of the author’s books.

The children loved being greeted by the character on the school gates as they arrived to school.

Mr Bond was delighted to attend.

He was overwhelmed at the amount of effort that both the children and staff had put in to making his visit welcoming.

He said, “I thoroughly enjoyed my visit – it’s a very happy school.

"I am so impressed by the incredible hard work that has gone into preparing for my visit – it’s the best welcome I have ever experienced and the best Infant School I have ever visited.”

The author spent time touring the school and reading some of his books to the Infant and Nursery children before officially opening the outdoor area and unveiling a plaque to commemorate the date that it was officially opened by author Denis Bond.

Roslin Owen, Head Teacher was so proud of how the visit went.

She said, “The children absolutely loved hearing Denis Bond’s stories. They were able to quote parts of all six.

"The stories are now very hard to get so we are all incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to buy a signed copy of them.”

The staff and children of Chatsworth Infant School sold a total of 257 copies of his books.