GETTING YOUNG PEOPLE LITERACY FIT FOR LIFE
Primary teachers, get my FREE Class Reader Guide and Reading Skills booklets.
Take the stress out of planning and get the most out of your class reader.
The guide contains a bank of ideas for using three of my books to open up a wealth of cross curricular activities, suitable for pupils aged 5 to 9. The Reading Skills booklets contain photocopiable worksheets of questions for each chapter so that pupils can develop their comprehension, inference and prediction skills alongside enjoying the stories.
You'll also receive my email newsletters about new book releases, competitions and opportunities to get involved with my works-in-progress.
Take the stress out of planning and get the most out of your class reader.
The guide contains a bank of ideas for using three of my books to open up a wealth of cross curricular activities, suitable for pupils aged 5 to 9. The Reading Skills booklets contain photocopiable worksheets of questions for each chapter so that pupils can develop their comprehension, inference and prediction skills alongside enjoying the stories.
You'll also receive my email newsletters about new book releases, competitions and opportunities to get involved with my works-in-progress.
AUTHOR VISITS
RAISING ASPIRATIONS AND PROMOTING LITERACY FOR LIFE
Literate children have better access to education and improved life choices. I help teachers to inspire their pupils to enjoy and feel confident with reading and writing.
A 2019 survey by The Literacy Trust found that pupils who have received author visits experience more enjoyment and more confidence in their reading.
RAISING ASPIRATIONS AND PROMOTING LITERACY FOR LIFE
Literate children have better access to education and improved life choices. I help teachers to inspire their pupils to enjoy and feel confident with reading and writing.
A 2019 survey by The Literacy Trust found that pupils who have received author visits experience more enjoyment and more confidence in their reading.
GIVE YOUR STUDENTS AN EXPERIENCE THEY'LL NEVER FORGET
Authors bring books to life! Learning about the behind-the-scenes work involved in taking a story from first draft to published book develops children's appreciation of books and their enthusiasm for reading them. Discovering all the stages a story goes through to be publication ready can also improve children's writing confidence when they accept that their writing can be improved through revision.
Seeing a real person speak openly about the ups and downs of their writing career allows children to raise their aspirations and realise that achieving goals is possible to anyone willing to put in the work, wherever they're from and whatever their strengths and weaknesses are.
Authors emphasise the importance of self-motivation, discipline and perseverance: traits that will help children succeed in their education and lives.
Meeting the person behind the pages can engage children to want to read their books which often develops into an increased interest in books in general.
Authors bring books to life! Learning about the behind-the-scenes work involved in taking a story from first draft to published book develops children's appreciation of books and their enthusiasm for reading them. Discovering all the stages a story goes through to be publication ready can also improve children's writing confidence when they accept that their writing can be improved through revision.
Seeing a real person speak openly about the ups and downs of their writing career allows children to raise their aspirations and realise that achieving goals is possible to anyone willing to put in the work, wherever they're from and whatever their strengths and weaknesses are.
Authors emphasise the importance of self-motivation, discipline and perseverance: traits that will help children succeed in their education and lives.
Meeting the person behind the pages can engage children to want to read their books which often develops into an increased interest in books in general.
In person or virtual author visits available for primary schools
The aim of a primary school visit is to give pupils the experience of meeting a 'real life' author and help them find what they enjoy reading and writing to grow their confidence and enjoyment of literacy activities.
* Whole school assemblies. * KS2 Presentation about Helen's books and author journey which includes how she uses English, maths and IT to run my author business. * Quiz on animal characters from fiction (KS2). * Writing workshops (KS2). * Behind-the-scenes of 'A Tale of Two Shoes' plus writing activity for Year 2 / 3. This activity is related to recycling and our responsibilities towards litter. * NEW Full day 'write, edit and market a book' workshop for Upper KS2. * NEW Author branding workshop to help children identify as writers. * Follow up activities to use after a visit are provided. |
In person or virtual visits available for secondary schools
The aim of a secondary school visit is to give students the experience of meeting someone whose career is based around writing and the opportunity to consider this for themselves.
* Year group assemblies about Helen's author journey, linked to perseverance, resilience, determination and goal setting. * Presentations to reading / writing clubs about Helen's books and author journey or her team writing projects with her own school writing club for students. * Presentations linked to careers and her career path. * Writing workshops with small groups. * Full day team-writing activities. |
Contact Helen here to enquire or request her Author Information Pack for 2023 24. It contains details about what she can offer schools, prices, and posters to advertise visits.
Helen loves coming into schools to work with students and share her love of reading and writing. Please use the contact page or email her here to get in touch if you'd be interested in viewing her author visits information pack and / or arranging a visit to your school. Books are offered at a discounted price during a visit. She's available in 2023 / 2024 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and can also beam into classrooms anywhere in the country / world via Zoom. Petra and Bella, the stars of her Daley's Dog Tales stories, can also accompany her on virtual visits and have proved a very popular part of the visit!
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Helen's books tie in brilliantly with a range of National Days!
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TESTIMONIALS FROM SCHOOLS
Seaton St Paul's CE Junior School, Workington - 17th and 24th June 2019
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"We encourage our children to have aspirations for the future and having a local author in to visit is a great example of this." Amanda Dickinson, Headteacher
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St Matthew's CE Primary School, Westnewton - 8th July 2019
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"The children really enjoyed the sessions. I noticed some excellent engagement from children who don’t always engage in the same way. They liked seeing the books you had enjoyed in the reading session and hearing you read an extract from your book was good. As for the writing, they really enjoyed that session and enjoyed the activity.
I hope you get lots of bookings! Thank you so much! We sold all the additional five copies I got from you! I may have to sell the school copies next and then buy replacements!" Helen Harrison, Headteacher |
Raughton Head CE Primary School, 15th July
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" The children have not stopped talking about your visit and Lucy!! They all loved the workshop, the quiz was great and pitched well to all levels and the writing character profile prompts were great! We thoroughly enjoyed today; it was very inspiring for our budding authors." Victoria Baker, KS2 Teacher
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Hunter Hall School, Penrith - 4th October
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"Thanks so much for coming. The kids loved having you in, and were buzzing about it all day.
I was really impressed with the way you pitched it - bang on for their age. You definitely won around the reluctant readers and have certainly inspired some of the keen readers to want to become writers themselves (not to mention me!!!) I particularly liked the editing task at the end. The buzz that (name) and (name) got when you were genuinely impressed with their edits has really skyrocketed their writing confidence, so thank you." Kirsten Fletcher, Deputy Head. |
Derwent Vale Primary School, Great Clifton - 11th October
Year 5 students at the school used Little Pearl as inspiration to write and produce a performance poem which was presented to me during the visit. I WAS NOT expecting this!
Morland Area CE Primary School (& others) Gifted & Talented Day - 1st November
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"I was just talking to the group who came to this and they loved it!"
Lynne Wade
Headteacher
Kirkby Stephen Primary School
Lynne Wade
Headteacher
Kirkby Stephen Primary School
Stanwix Primary School, Carlisle - 7th February 2021
"The session really inspired our children and gave them belief that anyone can become a story writer! They were enthused to read all of the stories that you suggested and we have a waiting list of children wanting to take the books home. A great session which I would highly recommend!" Sam Fitzsimons
"The session really inspired our children and gave them belief that anyone can become a story writer! They were enthused to read all of the stories that you suggested and we have a waiting list of children wanting to take the books home. A great session which I would highly recommend!" Sam Fitzsimons
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Forest Elementary School, New York, USA - Zoom visit, June 2021
"Thank you so much for visiting with us today! They loved asking you questions and finding out all about your books, published and upcoming! The students had so much fun and of course after meeting you, Petra, and Bella... we had to go on your website and see more pictures of the dogs!" Mrs Russo, second grade teacher. |
Woodside Primary in the Forest of Dean - Zoom visit, June 2021
"The children absolutely loved chatting to you today. It was just wonderful watching how engaged they all were. I know they were buzzing about meeting Petra and Bella. One of the girls absolutely adores your books. Her mum told me today she’d booked some riding lessons for next month because she is so keen." Mrs Cotterell, Year 3 / 4 teacher
"The children absolutely loved chatting to you today. It was just wonderful watching how engaged they all were. I know they were buzzing about meeting Petra and Bella. One of the girls absolutely adores your books. Her mum told me today she’d booked some riding lessons for next month because she is so keen." Mrs Cotterell, Year 3 / 4 teacher
Salterford House School, Nottingham - Zoom visit, July 2021
"The children loved the whole process from researching about (and reading) your books to having the Zoom meeting with you. I think the children found it really interesting to hear about where your ideas come from and that some of your ideas are inspired by real events. A lot of the boys were also interested in reading some of your collection, particularly the Dalmatian that Lost its Spots."
Mr Pritchard, Year 4 teacher.
"The children loved the whole process from researching about (and reading) your books to having the Zoom meeting with you. I think the children found it really interesting to hear about where your ideas come from and that some of your ideas are inspired by real events. A lot of the boys were also interested in reading some of your collection, particularly the Dalmatian that Lost its Spots."
Mr Pritchard, Year 4 teacher.
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St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Workington - Zoom visit, July 2021
"I used two of Helen’s books in my Year 2 class last term: 'A Tale of Two Shoes' and 'The Dalmatian that lost its Spots'. The pupils absolutely loved them and so did I! 'A Tale of Two Shoes' provided so many fantastic opportunities for meaningful and engaging cross-curricular work. We ‘kicked off’ our topic with a wonderful ‘wear your favourite shoes to school day’, wrote descriptions of our favourite shoes, created ‘WANTED’ posters, designed our own shoes, investigated shoe sizes in school and so much more. The children were so excited to ‘meet’ Helen via Zoom and loved having the opportunity to ask her some very thoughtful questions, as well as meet her beautiful dogs. I couldn’t think of a better way to inspire, engage and motivate our pupils. We are all looking forward to reading more of Helen’s books this year!" Mrs Payton, Year 2 teacher. |
Fairfield Primary School, Cockermouth - Zoom visit, July 2021
"Our school was lucky enough to have the opportunity of a virtual author visit in the Summer Term in connection to our reading 'A Tale of Two Shoes'. Our Year 2 children were enthused by the fact we were getting to meet a real-life, local author and loved the opportunity to learn and ask questions about how to become a writer. The children engaged in a session where they could learn about the process of writing a story from the plan to the finished, published product. From the session, our children worked hard to produce newspaper articles reporting the exciting events the two shoes went through and were proud to display these in our school. The story was thoroughly enjoyed by all the children and shared with their families. The children felt that the characters were exciting and relatable which was supported by clear morals running through the story."
Mrs Mossom, Year 2 teacher.
"Our school was lucky enough to have the opportunity of a virtual author visit in the Summer Term in connection to our reading 'A Tale of Two Shoes'. Our Year 2 children were enthused by the fact we were getting to meet a real-life, local author and loved the opportunity to learn and ask questions about how to become a writer. The children engaged in a session where they could learn about the process of writing a story from the plan to the finished, published product. From the session, our children worked hard to produce newspaper articles reporting the exciting events the two shoes went through and were proud to display these in our school. The story was thoroughly enjoyed by all the children and shared with their families. The children felt that the characters were exciting and relatable which was supported by clear morals running through the story."
Mrs Mossom, Year 2 teacher.
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St. Catherine's Catholic Primary School, Penrith - October 2022 (visit organised by Penrith Library)
"We read 'A Tale of Two Shoes' in September as it fit in so well with the other book, ‘Planet in a Pickle Jar’ that we had started the term with. This book by Martin Stanev also has a hard hitting message about the damage we are causing to the planet and what we can do to help. Both books running side-by-side has been excellent. I read 'A Tale of Two Shoes' over the course of a week and the children were genuinely excited to see what was going to happen to Shane and Sheila. Each time I put the book down and left it on a cliff hanger, the children were disappointed that I stopped reading.
It's been excellent to fit in with our current learning about the environment and what we can do to help future generations. It has generated talks about reduce-recycle-reuse. The 'Planet in a Pickle Jar' book has run alongside it and enabled us to do a little DT project about what we would preserve in a ‘pickle jar’ for future generations. Other activities we've done based on 'Two Shoes' are:
Mrs Jones, Year 3 / 4 teacher
"We read 'A Tale of Two Shoes' in September as it fit in so well with the other book, ‘Planet in a Pickle Jar’ that we had started the term with. This book by Martin Stanev also has a hard hitting message about the damage we are causing to the planet and what we can do to help. Both books running side-by-side has been excellent. I read 'A Tale of Two Shoes' over the course of a week and the children were genuinely excited to see what was going to happen to Shane and Sheila. Each time I put the book down and left it on a cliff hanger, the children were disappointed that I stopped reading.
It's been excellent to fit in with our current learning about the environment and what we can do to help future generations. It has generated talks about reduce-recycle-reuse. The 'Planet in a Pickle Jar' book has run alongside it and enabled us to do a little DT project about what we would preserve in a ‘pickle jar’ for future generations. Other activities we've done based on 'Two Shoes' are:
- Written questions that we would like to ask the author on a shoe template.
- Predicted what could happen to Shane and Sheila at different points in the book.
- Written speech bubbles between Shane and Sheila, and Sheila and the cat.
- We are going to do a book review of ‘A Tale of Two Shoes’.
- We are also going to learn about the features of a diary entry and then write a diary entry as one of the shoes.
- If time permits, it would be interesting to make a sea turtle out of rubbish.
Mrs Jones, Year 3 / 4 teacher
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