Free copy of Happy Here for all primary schools and free teaching resources and CPD in partnership with BookTrust
Bring inclusive and representative stories into your classroom.
CLPE and BookTrust are sending every primary school in England a free copy of Happy Here in September, ready for the start of the new academic year, as well as a poster designed by Anjan Sarkar to put up in your school.
To support teachers to give children a rich and diverse learning experience and bring inclusive and representative stories into the classroom, we are also offering all schools the opportunity to join online author events and access a suite of teaching resources and CPD for teachers. The teaching resources will be packed full of ideas and teaching approaches to explore the importance of representation in children’s literature and embed the Happy Here stories into their literacy curriculum.
Teaching resources and events for primary teachers
To celebrate the book being delivered to every primary school in England, we will be producing a teaching sequence for Happy Here, which will be free for all schools to access and support them to study and enjoy the book as part of their KS2 Literacy Curriculum. This sequence is available for schools to download for free...
Alongside the teaching sequence, the CLPE teaching team will deliver three, two-hour webinars at three different points over the next academic year, that provide CPD for teachers to learn more about the importance of CLPE’s Reflecting Realities and BookTrust’s research into representation into classroom practice as well as guidance on how to use the teaching sequence to embed Happy Here into the Literacy Curriculum. Find out more and book your place here.
The CLPE teaching team will also host three virtual Literacy Library Presents events for teachers, featuring authors from Happy Here and highlighting the importance of representation in children’s literature. To be the first to hear about these events, register your interest here.
BookTrust will also be offering all schools the opportunity to register to join a free online author event for years 5, 6 and 7. Join one of the featured authors in the book, award winning poet, Joseph Coelho, on 13 October 2021 at 9:30am as part of your Black History Month celebration. Find out more about this free online author event from BookTrust.
The Happy Here programme of activity has been designed to provide a platform and celebrate emerging and talented children’s authors and illustrators and support teachers to shift teaching practice by bringing representation and inclusive stories into the classroom. This is part of wider long-term programme of research and activity led by both BookTrust and CLPE to effect change in teaching practice and publishing and improve representation in children’s literature.
About Happy Here
Published by inclusive publisher Knights Of, Happy Here is an anthology for middle grade readers featuring stories and poems by 10 Black British authors illustrated by 10 Black British illustrators. The anthology includes an introduction from bestselling author Sharna Jackson, and explores themes of joy, home and family through a wide range of genres and styles, spotlighting Black British artistic talent. Happy Here brings together authors and illustrators from across children’s publishing with contributions from established names such as author Patrice Lawrence and CLPE Patron, Joseph Coelho, as well as introducing emerging talent.