Booking for the Masterclasses session is now live.
Date and Time: Tuesday 10 June 2025, 9am to 3.30pm plus optional twilight networking to 5pm.
Venue: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, 44 Webber Street, London SE1 8QW (map).
Suitable for: Class teachers (EYFS-KS2), English Subject Leads, Senior Leadership.
Relevant areas of the National Curriculum: Language and Vocabulary, Oracy, Reading, Writing, PSHE.
Description of session
Full day teacher CPD.
Explore how you can effectively build a spine for poetry across all Primary Key Stages, in line with the recommendations of the new Reading Framework.
Detail of activity
This Masterclass will be delivered by an expert advisory teacher from CLPE in partnership with award-winning children’s poet Matt Goodfellow.
The session will explore how poetry can be used in cross-curricular ways to engage children in reading and performing poetry, develop effective writing and raise engagement and attainment in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum. The day will allow schools to consider how they can effectively build a spine for poetry across the Early Years and Primary, in line with the recommendations of the new Reading Framework.
We will investigate high quality collections that can be used at different ages and stages and will look at the essential approaches and experiences that engage children with poetry, developing essential skills for speaking and listening, reading fluency and comprehension, phonics, spelling and grammar and composition of children’s independent writing. Throughout the day, Matt will share his own experiences of reading and writing poetry, engaging participants with performances of a range of poetry and supporting them to go on to write their own poetry using interactive approaches and practical activities which can be implemented immediately back in the classroom. These will support children of all ages, from EYFS to Year 6.
Key areas of focus
• Gain greater confidence in planning a range of practical activities to develop children’s creative writing in the classroom.
• Develop strategies to incorporate poetry into the wider curriculum.
• Learn how to develop and extend children’s understanding and use of vocabulary through poetry.
• Develop a wide knowledge of poets and poetry.
• Look at ways to engage children with a variety of poetic styles and forms through a range of creative approaches.
• Investigate how poetry supports the development of reading fluency.
• Use poetry to support pupils to respond to texts at a greater depth and develop deeper levels of inference when reading.
• Learn how to use poetry to develop and extend vocabulary and comprehension of language across the curriculum.
• Look at ways to help children foster their own authentic voices through writing poetry.
• Explore ideas and activities designed to support children to write effectively to make impact on the reader.
Takeaway
All participants will gain expert insights from the CLPE’s Power of Poetry research project, a free copy of CLPE’s Poetry: What We Know Works booklet, as well as receiving a poetry collection for each primary phase (EYFS, KS1 and KS2) to help with the immediate implementation of the day’s training. Resources provided will including teaching plans to support schools in providing a range and breadth of poetry as children move through the Early Years and Primary phases.
