Consultancy Services

Academic Presentations and Keynote Speeches

I speak at many conferences and presentations giving keynote speeches, organizing group symposia, presenting academic papers and talks as well as participating in group seminar sessions. If you are organising a conference and would like me to contribute please get in touch.

Professional Development Courses

I am available for consultancy related to all areas of the Early Years curriculum through to specialist work with Y5/Y6 children. I work with 3 – 12 year old children and their educators to include teachers, teaching assistants, literacy co-ordinators, parents, governors, head teachers, researchers and educational consultants. My courses are always a blend of theory and practice and I share children's work related to work/research I have done.

If you would like me to do a school based in-service day, work with children, offer some consultancy advice or speak at a larger conference then just get in touch.

What I Offer

Courses and conferences on aspects of literacy, mathematics and creativity for 3 – 11 year olds
Reader Response sessions with linked to challenging and controversial picturebooks
Reading and writing workshops
Bookmaking with children
Demonstration teaching, classroom organization and support
Talks to parents and governors on literacy events to include book readings
In-service work with teaching assistants
World book day book related activities

Previous Courses

These have covered:

Learning through talk: promoting listening and speaking
The importance of reading to children of all ages on a regular basis
The teaching of reading and writing
Responding to texts – encouraging children to be critical literacy users
Using rhymes, jingles, games, activities, song and patterned predictable texts to motivate children to learn to read.
Different kinds of play: role play; outdoor play; small world play
Non fiction reading and writing
Mathematics for 3 – 8 year olds
Science through story – teaching science investigations through story
Creativity and language - talk, visual literacy and art.
Popular culture and literacy learning --- tuning into children's interests: Bob the Builder, Beanie Babies, Peppa Pig
Using comics, graphic novels and picturebooks in the primary classroom
Liaison between the KS2 and KS3 literacy curriculum

Suggested Workshop Courses

My professional development courses are always tailor made to suit the children and teachers concerned. A small selection of previous full day conferences and in-service courses include:

Where do I belong?: Exploring questions of migration, inclusion and equality through picturebooks 4-11 years
From Comics, Graphic Novels and Picturebooks to Fusion Texts: A New Kid on the Block! 4-11 years
Making The Transition From Books To Digital Texts: Imaginative And Creative Responses To Picturebooks And Moving Image 4-11 years
Books, Books and More Books: Reading for Pleasure, for Learning and for Life 0 -6 years
The Power Of Books: Putting Literature Back Into Literacy 4-11 years
“What’s a memory?”: Exploring Past, Present and Future Memories in Picturebooks 4-11 years
Reading The Visual: Creative and Aesthetic Responses To Picturebooks and Fine Art 4 -11 years
Who are these books for?: Exploring challenging, controversial picturebooks and their audience 4-11 years
Who am I? Why am I here? and Where do I come from? : Responding to Big Questions and Philosophical Issues in Picturebooks 4-11 years
Reading And Writing Float On A Sea Of Talk : The Importance Of Listening And Speaking With Children 4- 11 years
Using Picturebooks As A Starting Point To Develop Children’s Play, Talk, Reading And Writing 4-11 years
How Texts Teach What Children Write: Writing From Reading With Young Children 4-11 years
“My Little Book Of Riyms” : Teaching Phonics - Onset, Rime And Analogy 3-8 years
What A Wonderful World: Bookmaking In The Primary Classroom Using Songs, Jingles, Poetry And Rap 3- 11 years
Rhymes, Jingles And All That Stuff : Using Patterned, Predictable Texts With Emergent Readers 3-8 years
Have Some Maths With Your Story:Teaching Maths Using Stories, Games And Activities 3-8 years

Working with Children and Teachers

This includes:

Interactive writing
Bookmaking using songs, jingles, poetry and rap
Reading to children
Shared reading with children
Using patterned, predictable texts with emergent readers
Children reading by themselves
Writing from reading
Organising full day conferences related to books

Why Invite Janet?

There are several good reasons to invite Janet to work in your school and/or speak at your conference:

Janet has been teaching for many years and understands how to talk to children and their educators.
Janet has written and edited ten books and can draw upon this knowledge and her work with children for her workshops.
Teachers will go away from Janet’s courses with a variety of ideas, strategies and activities that can be used in their classrooms.
Janet is fanatical about children’s literature – particularly picturebooks and she will read and share books at each and every opportunity during the course.
Janet is a confident, experienced speaker and delegates will respect the experience, knowledge and passion she brings to the course/conference.
Teachers will feel comfortable asking questions - Janet has been a teacher and understands what it is like to work with mixed ability children.
Janet will challenge participants with her ideas, while simultaneously supporting their current practices and understandings.
Janet is able to blend theory and practice in ways that make sense to classroom teachers

And last, but not least:

Janet is passionate about her subject and believes in entertaining as well as educating so participants will go away at the end of a day feeling empowered to try new and different things out in their classroom situation.

What Teachers Say: Course Evaluations

Feedback from previous courses includes:

"Janet was inspiring and reassuring. I’ve got lots of these books and was already doing some of these things. Now I’ve got loads of new ideas. Thanks."

"Reaffirmed my philosophy on the teaching of reading."

"Very interesting, lots of ideas, really good. A lot packed into the time."

"Lots of visual books and ideas on display that really helped – liked having research to read that is directly related to what was being shown."

"Very interesting – enjoyable and entertaining with lots of practical ideas and food for thought. Excellent presentation overall – a very valuable day."

"Really worthwhile, lots of visuals with the books and good ideas to use at my school.
Great, the best Saturday course I’ve been on."

"A fantastic, inspirational and original course. A really enjoyable experience. It was a small group and this was very beneficial."

"Extremely interesting and stimulating. Janet was very good at relating material to the specific needs/ age group of each course member."

"Wonderful! So many ideas and what fabulous books!"

"Excellent inset! Loads of ideas and resources. Very inspirational! Really enjoyed it, very useful."

Review written for Words and Beyond: Children’s Literature Conference Kuala Lumpur, British Council

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia. – Four fabulous days in a fantastical world – the realm of illustrated children’s book!

Janet Evans, vivacious and passionate, showed us the magic door which opened into the world beyond the here and now. It is a world which enchants, entrances, imagines, comforts, heals, and nurtures.

With Janet’s exceptionally animated presentation, the ‘Animating Literature Seminar,’ hosted by the British Council of Malaysia had begun. It was the most incredible seminar I had ever attended with 20 delegates, nine speakers/facilitators, and six seminar staffers.
No, I wasn’t a speaker. I was an ordinary delegate and I felt as if I’d become a child again. The speakers stayed with us the whole time, interacted with us, and joined our workshops.

Janet was the first speaker on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at the Executive Lounge on the 19th floor of Concorde Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur. It was a balmy afternoon outside and we had just eaten a lavish buffet lunch. I had travelled by bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for five hours on that particular Tuesday. Having left Singapore at 7:30 a.m., I felt very sleepy. But Janet’s presentation was so compelling that it didn’t give me any chance to doze off. She talked about how children read and respond to picturebooks.

The part I liked best was when she shared with us some of the illustrated books which her pupils in the United Kingdom were reading. She read each of them aloud while holding the books and showing us power point slides.

I was greatly touched by the book Jenny Angel by Margaret Wild and illustrator Anne Spudvilas. It’s about the death of a brother whom Jenny tries very hard to protect. But the inevitable comes to pass. It is incomprehensible. It is a loss and a pain beyond words, beyond pictures. Author Margaret Wild and illustrator Anne Spudvilas hold the reader’s hand and help them come to terms with death through Jenny Angel.
I must say that Janet read the book with so much heart and compassion and humanity. We hushed into the silence of our hearts, cried quietly with Jenny, and hugged her tenderly…

Carmelita C. Ballesteros
Literacy Consultant and children’s author