The three best books I've read in the last few weeks. All absolute crackers for KS2. @sarapennypacker.bsky.social @rebstead.bsky.social

How lots of the Writing Framework was welcome news for Writing for Pleasure schools like mine. My blog for the DfE teaching.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/17/w... @writingrocks.bsky.social

How the new Writing Framework can transform primary school teaching

Sam Creighton talks about building a writing curriculum based on meaningful projects. Children learn specific writing skills while keeping the joy and pride that comes from creating their work.

teaching.blog.gov.uk

Made it out for a run for the first time in six days this evening - in the pelting rain no less - and, not to overstate it, but running gives me more life than basically anything else 🏃‍♂️❤️ ☔️

'It is no great victory to learn to do something that one will not choose to do given the choice.' Eisner quoted in Making Poetry Happen in the context of children being volitional readers of poetry, but it's just as true & vital for all aspects of reading & writing. We need the skill AND the will 👏

For #KidsBooksFriday this week let’s highlight great kids puzzle and activity books. I find these are a great way to get kids to engage with physical books, particularly those who fear reading large swathes of text (as I did when I was wee). And they’re just great fun. #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit

'Times betwixt & between the demands of the curriculum where poetry can have a presence for teachers & pupils through reading aloud in an atmosphere of enjoyment & challenge is the place where poetry can matter most' My reading during kids' tennis lessons - real food for thought.

Plain Jane and the Mermaid by @verabrosgol.bsky.social is an utterly brilliant graphic novel. Drawing from a range of folklore, it examines our eternal obsession with physical beauty & how we need to overcome that to find real worth and happiness. A great pick for UKS2 🌊 🧜‍♀️ 🦭

I'm enjoying Adventures in Wonderland by @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social (thanks for the rec @newhambookshop.bsky.social). This point is spot on, kids' lit is a place where it is sensible to hope. Opposed to most adult lit which is centred on the inevitability of tragedy/the tragedy of inevitability.

With the IBC Excluded Voices report making for sober reading this week, let’s use #KidsBooksFriday to celebrate brilliant books from global majority writers. #KidLitUK #UKKidLit #KidLit www.inclusivebooksforchildren.org/excluded-voi...

What if the refugee crisis wasn’t happening far away, but here—in our own homes? No Refuge by Joe Brady & Patrice Aggs is a gripping, empathetic graphic novel that refuses to look away. I reviewed it for @justimaginecentre.bsky.social @the-phoenix-comic.bsky.social justimagine.co.uk/childrens-bo...

Thank you @newhambookshop.bsky.social! King's Hansel & Gretel is deliciously dark & more faithful than expected. Sendak's pictures are the right amount of scary. The Rosen/Oxenbury is so fun & I can't wait to read it aloud. My Hair... is beautifully lyrical. Now to start the new Rundell!

Today's discussion with fellow @uklitassociation.bsky.social Award longlisters is absolutely one of the highlights of my year. An incredibly hard task to narrow the 7-10 category down to just 20 texts but the vibrant and thoughtful discussions are an honour to witness and be part of 👏 📚 ❤️

Everything crossed to get MCR tickets. My teenage self is beyond excited... 😂😂

Schools are back this week in Scotland. So at @samcreighton.bsky.social’s suggestion, this week’s #KidsBooksFriday is about great books to share with a new class of kids. I’m not a teacher but I think these are all great books to read to kids as a first port of call. #UKKidLit #KidLit #KidLitUK

This is a pretty amazing place to live. I think everyone should get to see the sea every day.

Excited to discover @lighthousecomics.co.uk in my new town. I only popped in but it looks fab. Picked up Haru in the hope of making the next #LetsTalkGraphicNovels @mattobin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social @rcharlesworth.bsky.social 👏 Will be sure to go in again to buy these new titles too.

I hope you're happy @struan-murray.bsky.social! My 9 year old is bereft having finished Dragonborn because the next instalment isn't out yet! He adores it and now can't choose his next book, as he thinks nothing will compare! 😂 How long until he can get his hands on part two?!

The world is a stunning place 👏 🌳 A family stroll through Brockhill Country Park. My kids get taken there quite a lot by school, such an amazing resources to have on your doorstep!

I help run a MAT book club where teachers from each of the 5 schools meets half-termly to discuss 2 texts. Here are my initial choices for next year but I'm very open to suggestions or recommendations! @teresacremin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social @jonnybid.bsky.social @smithsmm.bsky.social

“Students have been incentivised to behave and write like an algorithm in order to please the measurements by which they’re judged…” - @biblioracle.bsky.social

Lovely 4 days alone with my kiddos! Bravo @englishheritage.bsky.social & @nationaltrust.org.uk. We've ✅ Dover Castle, Richborough Roman Fort, Walmer Castle & Scotney Castle (& Radnor Park, Brockhill Country Park & Cheriton Library). We've Warren Coastal Park & Battle Abbey today & Cliveden tomorrow

Some great stuff here 👏 'Teachers should reflect on how weighted their English curriculums are towards other subjects as opposed to explicitly focusing on the teaching of writing.' 100% this 👆 we need to use writing lessons to actually teach writing knowledge & skills!

Ross Young@writingrocks.bsky.social · last yr.

Children as Writers: Does choice impact motivation in Year 6 writing? by Alice Bidder writing4pleasure.com/2025/07/24/c...

If you want to read some thoughts on Tolkien, Le Guin, Pullman, Blackman, Blake & more - I very much enjoyed talking about them all in this interview about Tyger with The Daily Bulldog: dailybulldog.com/arts/an-inte...

An Interview With SF Said

A remarkable book is being released in the U.S. today. Tyger by SF Said won the British Book Award for Children’s Fiction Book of the Year when it was published in the U.K. in 2023…

dailybulldog.com

These pictures sum up my four perfectly. The six year old and two year old running off with wild abandon, the four year old dancing around with a flower and the nine year old about to fall off a hill because he's lost in a book (Reek by @alastairchisholm.bsky.social) 😂

“Manhood’s become a rock / I cannot lift alone.” Joseph Coelho’s The Boy Lost in the Maze remakes the Theseus myth into a mirror—reflecting modern masculinity, identity and the timeless search for self. My review for @justimaginecentre.bsky.social justimagine.co.uk/childrens-bo...

This has sent me into the summer on such a high. Met a girl in my new class at the beginning of the week, who confidently told me she doesn't like reading. I said that's fine, but even after just knowing you for five minutes, I think you might like this, and handed her Smile by @goraina.bsky.social

I utterly love being a teacher but I do hate how we go so full on during term time that our bodies save all our illness for the start of the holidays... felt like death for two days now and know I will do for another week...

Last literacy masterclass of the year for staff. Choose a book to enjoy over the summer! (No compulsion to read them but I'm confident most will choose to, especially after I share my favourite Auden quote on the first slide!) @teresacremin.bsky.social @jonnybid.bsky.social @openuni-rfp.bsky.social

Another work of utter genius from Shinsuke Yoshitake. It's definitely going to be one of the first books I read with my new class, we might even then write one together about teachers and pupils 😂. First books to read in September could make a good #KidsBooksFriday Q @mariannedoherty.bsky.social! 👏

It's taken me too long to get around to reading Rosa by Starlight from @hilarymckay.bsky.social. It's quiet, brave & magical, just like Rosa. It's a certain sort of book for a certain sort of child, it reminds me of texts likes The Song of Lewis Carmichael or, more recently Jakub's Otter ❤️ ❤️