Dick’s Son Giles Visits Ilfracombe Junior School

Published on Monday, January 19th, 2026

What a contrast! My last school visit was to Kentisbury – school roll 30. This time I was at Ilfracombe Junior School, doing 2 assemblies with a total of about 400 kids (as pictured).

This is clearly an excellent school. How do I know? Well, the kids, who have been reading “The Sheep Pig”, were well-informed and switched on. After the PowerPoint, both groups came at me with an avalanche of questions. As usual, there were some I couldn’t answer (“Which was the last book Dick wrote?” Aaargh!), and some that were quite intriguing (“How long did it take him to write a book?” Depends…).

Excitingly, I was asked not once but twice how old I am (72, thanks for your interest). The follow-up question was “What year were you born?” To add to my sense of advancing years, it turned out that Amy (Assistant Head) was at school with my son Nat!

I could also tell that this is a good school from my conversations with staff, many of whom have been there for donkey’s years, and all of whom openly expressed enthusiasm for their place of work. That only happens in schools that are well run and have a strong and consistent ethos.

So thank you, Ilfracombe Juniors, and enjoy your reading!

Comments