Back to School 2021

We are coming to the start of another academic year, similar to last year we know teachers and all those in education have been juggling bubbles, hand sanitiser and more than complicated arrangements and that you have been working so hard to keep the children in your schools safe, happy and educated.

At the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) we’ve been supporting schools for 50 years, so over these tough times we thought hard about the best ways in which we can support you in your literacy teaching.  We want to make sure that our resources and our professional development continue to meet your needs, helping you to help young people in school to have a broad and balanced literary experience, developing their love of reading and writing in a broad cultural and creative context.

Last year, we created a free whole school unit to support Primary Schools with the back to school transition. Based around Oliver Jeffers’ brilliant book, Here We Are, this unit was used by over 8000 primary schools across the world. It supported teachers to use one text across the whole school in meaningful literacy lessons and addressing the concerns and experiences of children. The unit ended in a day of celebration, with thousands of schools, authors and illustrators sharing their words for the world. #CLPEWordsForTheWorld

This unit encouraged a sense of community across thousands of primary schools and helped whole schools look forward to the future in a positive way. As it was such a success our expert teaching team decided to create a FREE back to school resource for September 2021.

This free whole school teaching unit for 2021 focuses on three high quality children's books to involve whole school communities in a ‘learning together, growing together’ focus. This year the back to school campaign will focus on 3 books:

• Errol's Garden by Gillian Hibbs targeted at pupils in EYFS
• The Secret Sky Garden by Linda Sarah and Fiona Lumbers targeted at pupils in Key Stage 1
• The Promise by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin targeted at pupils in Key Stage 2

The unit will engage the whole school community in a project that engages children in a wide range of creative and outdoor literacy activities that are designed to impact positively on social skills and emotional well-being. At the end of the unit, the whole school community will take part in a project that results in positive action for change in their local community, through planting in the local area.

Support your school in September and register for this unit for free here...

Alongside our back to school offer, CLPE remain committed to ensuring you can access quality CPD which helps you to develop both specialist subject knowledge and pedagogical practice.  We are providing this CPD as a face to face and an online offer this year. Discover our course brochure to find training to support your literacy curriculum…  

We wish all those in education the best for a happy and healthy autumn term, and school year, if there is anything we can help you with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by emailing: [email protected]