You know how hard it is to pull all the strands of literacy together so that everything makes sense. And, you know how important it is to teach this huge range of literacy skills in a context that makes sense to the children. That’s why so many of us choose to use children’s books as the stimulus for our literacy learning. In this article, I open a window on my approach to planning literacy learning with children’s books.

A collection of children’s books to help you mark Holocaust Memorial Day with primary age children.

A selection of winter and Christmas themed books from our children’s reading expert, Joy Court.

A selection of books curated by our children’s book expert, Joy Court, in recognition on Non-Fiction November.

Reading aloud to children is one of the most important things we can do and choosing the right books is vital. In this article we explore some of the ways to choose books that will help all children enjoy your Storytime sessions.

New releases and old favourites chosen to ensure that you have a spookily good time reading this Halloween.

Read about our Representative Reading Spine, a spine of inclusive books designed to support diversity and reading for pleasure in Primary Schools. Devised and created by experts from Coventry Schools Library Service and Primary English, it’s a reading spine that inspires, connects and engages children through high quality texts from contemporary authors and illustrators.

Poetry book recommendations from children’s literature expert, Joy Court.

If you’re looking for books on the theme of going Back to School, this selection is just the thing. With fabulous recommendations and links to other content on the Primary English website, it’s here to help you launch the new year in a bookishly good way!

Retrieval is a key reading skill whether you’re teaching comprehension through Guided, Close or Whole Class Reading. In this short article we share some quick and easy techniques to help your class retrieve key information from texts. All of the suggestions here are lo-fi and designed to save you time whilst have a clear focus on retrieving and recording key information from texts.

With the holidays fast approaching I am sure everybody is thinking about how to keep children reading over the summer, so the theme this month is Humour! Funny books are the perfect way to engage children’s interest, which also makes them great read-alouds for an end of the day / end of the term classroom treat.

Here at Primary English HQ, we’ve talked about, written about, and led training on vocabulary for several years. As a consequence of all those conversations about words, we’ve collated some of the FAQs we’re asked about vocabulary.

This month, our children’s book expert shares recommendations for books about dads. Perfect for celebrating Father’s Day.

There are many advantages to delivering reading lessons to the whole class. For example, pupil engagement and productivity can be increased as all pupils receive the attention of the expert in the room (you) for the full lesson; you can build on children’s knowledge and understanding by linking the texts you use to the wider curriculum, you can make ambitious text choices so that the whole class are exposed to age-appropriate texts and by involving the whole class you have the potential for wider discussions than if teaching children in small groups. But just as there are advantages to teaching the whole class together, so there are also some common challenges.

A selection of children’s books about the Olympics and sport to get you limbered up for the delayed 2020 Olympic games.

In this article children’s literature expert, Joy Court, gives us her recommendations for books on the theme of evolution.

Putting knowledge at the core of the curriculum is a key area of development in most schools at the moment; after all, knowledge is power. Consequently, the presence of Knowledge Organisers, Knowledge Quizzes and staff training on Retrieval Practice can be felt all around us.

But what about key knowledge in primary English? What knowledge is required to be successful in primary English and what can we do in our classrooms to support this in engaging and memorable ways?

A round up of gorgeous children’s picture books to love and cherish.

Here at Primary English, not a day goes by without us thinking about a book that we’ve seen or read and imagining the learning opportunities it holds. We are bookworms through and through and like all educators want to inspire a love of reading.

If you’re looking for a resource that links grammar to high-quality children’s books, our Starting Points Overview is just the thing. Find out more about this invaluable resource in this short article by our Director, Rachel Clarke.