I am an award-winning children’s author who offers creative literacy workshops and support for strategic literacy development for your school community. I can work with you to help improve literacy standards and enthusiasm for reading and creative writing within your school community and offer support to achieve the following outcomes:
Increase children’s enthusiasm for books and reading by helping children to enjoy reading for pleasure
Increase children’s motivation to want to write their own stories
Increase children’s confidence in thinking up ideas for their own story writing
Increase families’ enthusiasm for reading at home
Teach children new story writing techniques
Increase teacher knowledge of children’s books and their suitability for your class
Increase staff motivation and confidence on sharing stories, story writing techniques and extension activities.
Improve school library provision
*COVID-19 Update I have experience running virtual storytime using Zoom, Facebook Live and Skype. To help you set these sessions up, I have a handy Teacher Guide and pro-forma Risk Assessment.
What’s on offer?
All visits can be run face-to-face in a well ventilated school hall with groups up to 30 children, or Virtually via Zoom, skype or your own teaching platform.
Note: All prices below are for guidance only. Expenses will be charged in addition. All bookings require a 50% deposit, which may not be refunded should you cancel your booking.
Recovery Curriculum Creative writing can be an important part of your recovery curriculum, enabling children to express and process their feelings about the Coronavirus pandemic, social distancing, loss and isolation. I can work with you to develop creative writing activities that look specifically at:
Appreciating the little things in our lives; Dealing with loss; Dealing with anxiety; Keeping clean, germs, good and “bad” dirt; Developing community within your school
Evaluation Evaluation is an important part of your Artsmark journey. I can help you design your own evaluation or you can use or adapt my own quick teacher-evaluation forms and child-friendly pupil evaluation forms.
Classic Author Visit A full day of creative literacy activities designed for your school needs.
Patron of Reading A term-long or year-long arrangement where we look at your literacy goals as a school and create a strategy and schedule of events to kick start those goals.
Format: Class-based workshops, virtual visits, printed material, face-to-face or virtual sessions
Audience: Whole school – Nursery to Year 6
Capacity: Up to 16 classes depending on numbers and setting
Costs: Full day £450, Half day £350, Assembly or single workshop: £250
Reading at Home Project I can work with you to create a strategy to improve family motivation for reading at home.
Format: Paper-based or online monthly resource, family assemblies, family zoom sessions.
Audience: Families, whole school – Nursery to Year 6
Capacity: Up to 16 classes depending on numbers and setting
Costs: variable, depending on what you’re looking for
Book Clubs I can help you set up a book club to run at lunchtime, after school, or for home-based learning
Format: face-to-face or virtual session via zoom or skype
Audience: Year 1 to Year 6
Capacity: Up 15 children per group
Cost: £100 for virtual session. £250 for face-to-face
Teacher Training and CPD I can run training sessions during school hours or evenings/weekends to help staff develop new literacy activities
Format: face-to-face or virtual sessions
Audience: Teachers, TAs, Student teachers
Capacity: Up to 15 per session
Cost: £350 for 2 hour session
School Library Improvement I can help you create or improve your school library to great quality, diverse picture books, fiction and information books to your students.
Format: discussion of your needs and recommendations
Cost: tba depending on your needs
