Booking for this Masterclass session opens Wednesday 10 September 2025.
Suitable for: Class teachers (EYFS-KS2), English Subject Leads, Senior Leadership.
Relevant areas of the National Curriculum: Language and Vocabulary, Oracy, Reading, Writing, PSHE.
Date and Time: Wednesday 6 May 2026, 9am to 3.30pm plus optional twilight networking to 5pm.
Venue: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, 44 Webber Street, London SE1 8QW (map).
Venue accessibility: Step free access, accessible toilets and accessible parking.
Description of session
Full day teacher CPD.
Enhance your knowledge and understanding of how to choose and use picture books across all Primary Key Stages to increase children’s motivation and attainment as independent readers and writers.
Detail of activity
This Masterclass will be delivered by an expert advisory teacher from CLPE in partnership with author and illustrator, Daishu Ma. It will enhance participants’ knowledge and understanding of how to choose and use picture books to increase children’s motivation and attainment as independent readers and writers.
We will explore:
- How well-chosen picture books can increase children’s comprehension of language and engage children in deeper response.
- Authentic and meaningful approaches to the writing process, to improve pupils’ independent writing, engagement and attainment.
- How school leaders can build a spine of picture book texts that could be included in a rich, progressive Primary English Curriculum.
Key areas of focus
- Understanding the importance of picture books as a vital part of children’s reading experiences across the primary years.
- How to closely read illustration, developing visual literacy skills.
- Investigating approaches to develop children’s inference, deduction and to be critically reflective about a text and its impact on the reader.
- How to convey meaning in words and illustrations of their own, investigating the impact of drawing as a means of communicating and sharing ideas.
- How to teach children the building blocks of narrative by exploring a wide range of high-quality picture books.
- Examples of creative teaching approaches that support children’s engagement with and understanding of narrative.
- How to support children in creating, shaping, developing and publishing their own narratives using words and pictures following the authentic process of a practicing writer.
- How to embed creative practices across your school to develop children’s engagement and attainment in reading and writing.
Takeaway
Participants in this Masterclass will receive two carefully-selected picture book texts, along with detailed teaching plans for each age phase to allow that text to be taught across a school. They will also have access to a suite of video resources to support teachers to use the book and develop children’s independent writing back in their own classrooms.
