Book recommendations
WE ARE HERE by Kate Rafiq
Dune Books
ISBN 9781838346133
£12.99
This is a beautifully illustrated picture book suitable for use in KS2. It follows the journey of a refugee child and their mother crossing the dangerous sea in hopes of a safer life. 10% of the profits from the book go to Refugee Rescue.
Recently published research/reports
- Watch out for Literacy Lab’s upcoming study on Neurodiversity and Narrative Fiction. Stories often reflect the social world we live in, and can enrich our understanding of ourselves and others. Adolescence is a period of life characterised by exploration of identity and discovery of self; books offer opportunities for young people to explore personally meaningful content. Research focusing on inclusive representation in young people’s literature has focused almost entirely on racial and ethnic representation. This study will be the first to provide detailed insight into neurodivergent young people’s perceptions of how their lives and experiences are represented in narrative fiction (and other text types), with neurodivergent young people informing our research process.
- Turn On The Subtitles: “Top scientists have proven that turning on subtitles of TV programmes can double the chances of a child becoming good at reading.” Check out the resources for teachers
- ‘Reading is not a medicine. You don’t just have to take it‘ by Michael Morpurgo in the TES magazine. Establishing a ‘reading culture’ is vital for pupils’ development, but schools face barriers to making this a reality, says the children’s author.
Upcoming celebrations of brilliant children’s books
- Explore the EA’s English 4-11 Picture Book Awards 2024 shortlist, and join us at the AGM to discover the winners!
- The shortlists for the Laugh Out Loud Awards, The Klaus Flugge Prize and The Alligator’s Mouth Award all come out in May. The Laugh Out Loud Awards celebrate funny children’s books, The Klaus Flugge Prize rewards the most promising new children’s illustrator and The Alligator’s Mouth Award highlights highly illustrated fiction for 6-8 year olds.
- The Children’s Book Award 2024 shortlist has been announced, with children choosing their favourite books from the last year. Children nationwide are now invited to vote for their favourite of the ten shortlisted books. Online voting will open on 25th March and the deadline will be 12 noon on 18th May. The category winners and the author of the best children’s book published in the 2023 nomination period will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony which takes place in Central London on Saturday 8th June, and will be live-streamed. The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. It is owned and coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is highly respected by teachers, parents and librarians. It has brought acclaim and strong sales to past winners such as J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo, who has won a record four times. The award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.
Upcoming CPD
Book now on SATIPS webinar How to Help Children Become Skilled Writers of Non-Fiction
Pesented by Talk for Writing Deputy Director Julia Strong
This INSET is designed for teachers of Years 1-6. This training is an introduction in how to teach non-fiction units in English in Talk for Writing style. It will demonstrate how to build up language skills through internalising model text, alongside short-burst activities including shared writing, so that children internalise the key language patterns and writing tools underpinning each non-fiction text type. It will include an emphasis on the sentence signposts that link text together and guide the reader or listener so that the children can become confident, coherent communicators. INSET Outcomes By the end of the training, delegates should be able to see how to structure non-fiction units so they focus effectively on the underpinning patterns of the non-fiction text type required and build in progression.
The OU’s Reading Schools Programme
Is reading for pleasure a key strategic priority in your school or Trust? Are you working towards whole school development of RfP in order to impact on the life chances of all your children, but particularly the lowest attaining 20%? The OU’s extensive work and expertise in this area has led to the development of our highly-acclaimed Reading Schools Programme: Building a Culture of Reading which is evidence-informed, practical and impactful. Do you want to: • Improve children’s reading attainment, pleasure and wellbeing? • Impact on the lowest attaining 20%? • Strengthen the leadership of reading? • Develop staff knowledge and practice to motivate all children? • Enrich home-school relationships around reading? The OU’s year-long Reading Schools Programme will enable you to build a rich reading culture and curricula that will impact on children’s life chances. Pupils who read regularly and widely, benefit from higher attainment in English and across the curriculum. They have a richer vocabulary, wider knowledge of the world and enhanced wellbeing.
