Two schools, same age range, same catchment area. At school A, the kids asked me questions of depth and perception. At the end of my workshop every child wrote an imaginative story of more than 300 words in 10 minutes.

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At school B, the kids looked shocked to suddenly be interested in a talk. Only three could write a paragraph.

The difference? Not class size or amenities. School A had a teacher-librarian passionately determined that kids should love to read and learn. That passion was infectious.

School B had no librarian, much less one trained to see what book each kid needed, and how to make sure they found it. The library was locked, as staff couldn't find the time to replace borrowed books in the correct order. At lunch in the staff room I overheard two teachers talking.

"It's a waste of time to teach these kids. They're hopeless."

I speak to at least a thousand kids a year, often far more, and have for over three decades. I speak to the best schools, not necessarily the wealthiest, but the ones where someone is determined the kids will get the best, including a workshop with an author.

I speak to the worst schools, too, when I'm hired to speak to every school in a certain area even if they aren't interested in having an author encourage their kids to read: the public school where kids watched whatever was on TV for almost every lesson; the schools where the kids are all absent for a sport's day, and no one has bothered to reschedule my talk; the independent school where kids punched each other to shut them up so the attacker could be first to ask a question, and no teacher intervened or seemed to think physical aggression was unusual. School after school where the lowest-performing students are supervised so they don't wreck the school, but never taught.

"No point. They are hopeless."

There is an increasing number of schools - including private schools - that have no library.

These are the schools that when I ask "Who thinks school is boring?" every child puts up their hand (I am not asked back to those schools). But as importantly, when I ask "Were you bored last night at home and last weekend?" every kid puts up their hand, too.

In 2015 as Children's Laureate I asked about 20,000 kids across Australia what they wanted in a school. Over 800 gave written responses. The answers were astonishingly similar.

Holidays 365 days a year. Free lollies. An elephant to ride to school. But the majority wanted "more". Longer school hours, but to study what they were interested in. Teachers who don't yell at them.

"Lessons where we learn something real, Miss."

One kid suggested every teacher listed the subjects they could teach - not necessarily ones in the syllabus, but how to repair a car, make a robot, explain star systems, play the guitar. Kids wanted to spend from 3pm until 5pm studying what they loved. Tellingly, no kid who responded thought they could be as interested in what was already taught in school hours.

Overwhelmingly, kids want to learn. Yet only a few schools are delivering what these kids yearn for.

These schools are fabulous. They include the richest, the poorest, and ones in between. There is no way of telling until you step into the school grounds, and then the answer is immediate. Do the kids look happy and engaged, or bored, and possibly wondering what graffiti to daub in the school toilets?

What makes a school where kids are enthusiastic and perform best on NAPLAN........

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