I've visited over 280 schools in the last five years and talk to students about creative writing - specifically humour. I have a background in stand-up comedy, and write for TV, radio, websites, newspapers, and magazines. I currently write for The Sunday Times, BBC Radio 4's Home Truths and The Boston Herald(USA).

I'm well placed to open their eyes to the many possibilities for writing, and make it clear that you don't have to write a book to be a writer. For junior and infants schools, we look at sense of humour in a broader sense.

My sessions help them make their writing more entertaining and overcome the 'fear of the blank page.' Using a lively, entertaining approach, I can show that writing is not rocket science!

I wrote and performed stand-up comedy for ten years.

I currently write for The Sunday Times, The Boston Herald(Travel)and Junior magazine. I've written for The Independent, GQ, Slimming, Real, Mother and Baby, and numerous others

I write and narrate a column for Home Truths (Radio 4).

I devised, wrote and presented my own hour-long magazine shows on Viva radio.

I've also written and performed on TV - EastEnders Revealed, NetdotComedy, Little Picture Show.

I've written humorous copy for websites.

I first heard of Dave Smith as a contributor to the BBC radio programme, 'Home Truths' and found him to be witty and astute. I later met him at a conference for heads of English where his repartee was the perfect antidote to the serious business that was to follow.

I subsequently invited him to lead a writing workshop with the Year 7 students at our school who were deemed to show particular promise in narrative writing. He took as his topic 'Humorous Writing' and adopted a very entertaining and original approach to this aspect of the craft. He gave each group of students the ingredients for their story, all of them fairly incongruous, and invited them to create the narrative. The students worked enthusiastically and came up with some pretty original stuff. At the end of the session, they all appeared excited and inspired to continue writing.

A measure of the success of the workshop was that a number of parents were moved to write into school to say how much their son or daughter had derived from being involved.

I feel that he would be a very valuable member of the National Association of Writers in Education.

Head of English, Kings Langley School, Hertfordshire

Dave Smith led a 2 hour workshop on writing which was given to a group of AS students studying language and literature. The workshop involved him talking about his own experiences as a writer and his process of writing. Stimulus material was also provided to enable students to begin some of their own writing. Dave also focussed on some of the techniques of writing in order to appeal to a reader.

Students found the session particularly useful and beneficial for their exam module which required them to produce their own writing.

English Teacher, Hitchin Girls' School, Hertfordshire