Literacy planning can be a challenging task. As a teacher, you might find you need to adapt to new standards, objectives or assessment criteria. Furthermore, you might be working at a school that has limited resources.

In the modern age, meeting standards when it comes to diversity and inclusion can also be tricky at times. Literacy Hive wants to make this process easier.

Two areas which have been gaining attention over the past few years include:

• Promoting a love for reading. Teachers are encouraged to create an environment that fosters a passion for reading, including providing access to a variety of books and encouraging independent reading.
• Literacy planning that focuses more on developing students’ writing skills. This includes teaching grammar, punctuation, and spelling, as well as fostering creativity and effective communication through various writing genres.

If you wish to encourage literacy in children, both reading events and book awards can be invaluable. 

Now is one of the best times to look at the various events taking place in 2024.  There’s no shortage of wonderful events taking place in the world of children’s literature. Indeed, support for literacy from the wider world has never been greater.

With our Literacy Year calendar you can find it much easier to find amazing events. We also have a massive wealth of resources on our website for planning your lessons.

Want to encourage young writers? One big advantage is that modern authors have never been more accessible. 

This makes it much easier to inspire young writers and give them insights into the craft of writing.

Authors have never been more accessible to inspire young readers and share insights into the craft of writing. From the excitement of an in-person event at a literature festival to online workshops, there are now so many ways to bring authors and readers together.

There’s also a range of writing competitions for children and teenagers, which are great for providing a sense of audience and purpose.

Book awards help teachers find books of real value. 

Our literacy calendar provides news on the latest children’s book awards. Children’s book awards are one of the best ways to find inspiration and become engaged with the latest social and cultural trends. They play a part in helping teachers continually update their knowledge of books.

Children’s book awards usually have rigorous selection processes involving a panel of experts, educators, librarians and parents. 

They assess the quality of the content, writing style, illustrations and overall impact of the book on its intended audience. There are book awards to cover all genres, with awards dedicated to raising the profile of previously under-represented groups.

Their shortlists are a great way to ensure that schools have an inclusive and representative library collection.

Arts organisations and charities also create literacy-based outreach projects and initiatives designed to support the work that teachers do in schools.

However, keeping track of all these opportunities to promote reading and writing in the classroom takes time – time that most teachers do not have. That’s where our Literacy Year Calendar can help.

Using our literacy events calendar to help you plan your literacy curriculum.

The Literacy Year is an online calendar of celebration days, children’s books awards, writing competitions and reading challenges that allows you to see what is coming up month by month. It’s brilliant for linking your literacy curriculum to events in the wider world and developing cross-curricular activities, as well as finding resources to support reading for pleasure.

Keep abreast of everything that the world of literacy has to offer.

Each calendar entry includes a ‘Further Resources feature with links to relevant booklists, author events or other projects on a similar theme. And because it’s an online calendar, it can be easily updated as new resources become available so that you always have the latest information at your fingertips.

Find events to support key areas of the curriculum.

Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) has become increasingly important in schools, especially since the pandemic.

Issues around children’s mental health and wellbeing have come to the fore. Here are a few of the events you might wish to explore:

• Children’s Mental Health Week
• Empathy Day
• Anti-Bullying Week

Encouraging children to read for pleasure.

Our calendar is a great tool to help you embed a reading for pleasure culture. 

Whether you’re looking for information on World Book Day, reading challenges, or book awards with shadowing schemes, all of these can be planned into your literacy curriculum.

Keep a look out for literature festivals such as Barnes Children’s Literature Festival and the online Reading is Magic Festival that brings authors and young people together. There is something for kids of all tastes throughout the year.

It’s our job to help you find resources which assist with your development as a teacher. We can help you take advantage of everything that the wider world of books and reading has to offer.

Why not get started with our Literacy Calendar today?