CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education)

🔊 Our 7th annual #ReflectingRealities report is out now! This year’s report shows a significant drop in the presence of racially minoritised characters in books published for children in 2023 in the UK. For the first time in its history, the annual CLPE #ReflectingRealities survey reports an overall drop in the percentage of racially minoritised characters featured in published children’s books reviewed – from 30% in 2022 to 17% in 2023 The report shows the number of racially minoritised main characters has dropped by half to 7% in 2023, compared to 14% in 2022. This year’s report calls for renewed commitment from the publishing industry in improving the volume and quality of inclusive output, alongside a review of practices and investment. Thank you to Arts Council England for their continued support in funding this important research and our Steering Group for their invaluable support of this work. And a HUGE thank you to both Habiba Nabisub for allowing us to reproduce her brilliant illustrations in this year’s report and to Ben Cotterill for designing the report. Read the full report: https://ow.ly/njAS50UgBZ2

Tomorrow we release our annual #ReflectingRealities report, exploring representation of racialized minorities in UK children’s literature. Find all our previous research so far on our website. https://ow.ly/B6qZ50UgAZo

Our next Power of Reading Training starts this Friday! 🎉 The Power of Reading is CLPE’s proven programme that supports your school to develop a high quality literacy curriculum, which fosters a whole school love of reading and writing and raises achievement in literacy. Book now! https://ow.ly/CFx750UfS0u

3 years ago, we asked CLPE Patron, Michael Rosen how teachers can tangibly use poetry in the classroom. Here's just a snippet of what he had to say! Watch the full video: https://lnkd.in/eBV-y7SP

Our CLPE School Membership just got even better 😍 Find out how you can support all teachers in your school to really engage children in fantastic books, and improve their reading and writing with our lesson plans, curriculum maps, online CPD and more! 👉 clpe.org.uk/membership #Teachertok #ClassroomResources #TeacherCPD #CurriculumPlanning #primaryteachers

A fantastic day at Devon Education Services Read and Represent English conference today, exploring the CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) Reflecting Realities reports and how to choose and use texts to develop children’s reader and writer identities and promote unity and connectedness. This included time to share and explore books from the CLPE library, to look at what makes a quality representative text, considering how these might inspire learners. I was delighted to be able to meet and speak alongside Tolá Okogwu, who talked about her Daddy Do My Hair, Aziza’s Secret Fairy Door and Onyeka books, inspired by a desire to create authentic characters and incredible stories that allowed her daughters to see themselves in books. This has been to the wider benefit of so many readers who’ve been introduced to her books. So fantastic to have the Devon Schools Library service there too, who brought along a wonderful selection of texts that they currently have available for schools. Their service is vital in a climate where funding for keeping book stock fresh and relevant was noted as a significant challenge by the schools. The day ended with a panel, where Tola and I were joined by inspiring headteacher Tameka Hue Hamilton (whose reading of and response to a Valerie Bloom poem I shared as part of the session was one of the highlights of my day and put into perfect context why a breadth and range of texts and authors is a crucial part of the curriculum) and Jonathan Blyth and Eve Malatjie who do fantastic work as part of Mixed Families Together, connecting mixed heritage and global majority families across Devon, uplifting and celebrating diverse heritages and helping families feel part of a vibrant, supportive community. All in all a really enriching and inspiring day working with partners and educators to consider how books can support children’s self-identity, as well as supporting unity and connectedness with others and the world around them. It was also great to see Michael Kimber (looking forward to a session with The Cornerstone Academy Trust next week!) and to meet Jamie Fries. Thanks so much to all involved and to Jessica Marian for her fantastic organisation.

We have been making some big changes to our membership which we think you will love! We are delighted to introduce our newest Membership benefit, whole school access to our online CPD series (currently online as our 'Online Learning Sessions'*). CLPE School members will now have access to our online learning programme: a series of 60–90-minute lessons that support every aspect of literacy training – reading, writing, spelling, grammar and phonics – from EYFS to Year 6, worth over £1000 to non-members. Our online CPD series is recorded to enable on demand access for your entire staff for up to thirty days from the release date. Access this new benefit on an individual basis or share it as part of a team meeting, however you decide to use it, it is now part of CLPE’s yearly membership fee! Find out more via our website! *Excludes our Power of Reading Training

A wonderful day this week at the CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) library with Roger McDonald, Seraphina Simmons-Bah and their incredible students at the University of Greenwich who joined me for a poetry workshop. It was fantastic to see such an engaged group of learners, reflecting on their current knowledge and experience of poetry in primary schools and growing in their understanding of how transformative poetry can be for children’s developing literacy through engaging in a range of practical activities. The students listened to poets perform their poetry, worked up performances of their own, listened to, read and responded to poems and engaged in writing poetry of their own. I’m really excited that these enthusiastic students will be inspiring learners in the future. We run all kinds of CPD sessions for universities and schools on all aspects of literacy, including phonics, reading, writing and how to use poetry and picturebooks to inspire children as readers and writers across the primary years. Get in touch for more information or to book: https://lnkd.in/ekwNjcbq

Our next #ReflectingRealities research will be launched at the end of November. We are able to continue this important research thanks to the support from the National Lottery and National Lottery players. Thank you! #NationalLottery30 Arts Council England

Today, the National Literacy Trust launched the results of their annual survey of children's reading. The survey reveals that children’s reading enjoyment has plummeted: only 1 in 3 children and young people enjoy reading in their free time. At CLPE, we work with Primary Schools to increase children’s engagement in reading and writing to raise literacy achievement. Our work helps schools to foster a reading and writing for pleasure environment for children because we know that helps them to develop essential literacy skills. Being literate, is essential for learning and development. Read the full report below: