Literacy

From the 13th to the 16th of May 2019, key stage 2 children across the country will be sitting their more rigorous Year 6 SATs tests. Darryl Keane from Learning by Questions has worked in education for 10 years and during his time as a teacher, he marked the key stage 2 SATs …

Penguin and the National Literacy Trust have teamed up to launch a free teaching resource inspired by Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir, Becoming, to boost secondary students’ literacy skills, leadership abilities and confidence: literacytrust.org.uk/becoming. Literacy levels and confidence amongst England’s young people is worryingly low. Last year, a third (36%) of …

Children’s author, TV presenter and singer Alesha Dixon, has been named this year’s judge of the Explore Learning Writers’ Awards.  The competition, now in its 11th year encourages children from across the UK to get their imaginations going and write a 500-word story in the hope that they will be …

Bestselling author James Patterson is to donate £50,000 to help schools fund books for classrooms and libraries. In collaboration with Scholastic UK Book Clubs, Patterson’s Big Book Giveaway will make over £25,000 available to schools and teachers in both the autumn and spring terms of this school year. 100 schools …

Children from primary schools in Merseyside have been experiencing a unique safari-themed outdoor learning adventure as part of a special project to get more children excited about reading whilst encouraging them to learn and connect to the natural world around them. The initiative was organised as part of a collaborative …

Shakespeare Schools Foundation (SSF) has been awarded the Grant for Young Artists in the 30th anniversary year of The Praemium Imperiale. Awarded by the Imperial Family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Arts Association, the global arts prize includes five categories not covered by The Nobel Prize – painting, …

Children aged five to 15 across the country are being invited to enter the Dragonfly Tea Story Competition, with book vouchers and a prize-giving at one of the UK’s leading book festivals on offer to the winners. 2018 marks the fourth consecutive year the Berkshire-based tea company has teamed up …

Pupils at Rosh Pinah Primary School in Edgware received £5,000 RRP worth of books after topping the leaderboard in a competition that saw 200,000 children across the UK try to read as much as possible over a month. Councillor Brian Gordon and Councillor Sarah Wardle joined the celebration in the …

Over 7,000 hours are volunteered every week to help children become confident and able readers across primary schools and early years settings in England, according to children’s reading charity Beanstalk. The organisation trains and supports reading helpers to provide one-to-one support to children aged 3 to 13 in a variety …

The National Literacy Trust and Walker Books have teamed up to launch a series of fantastic free teaching resources, posters and bookmarks to inspire Key Stage 2 pupils to get writing ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton, the authors behind the best-selling …