The Power of Pictures Conference

Please note that this conference has now passed.

Transform the teaching of writing in your school and develop an English Curriculum that is exciting and challenging to all learners.

At CLPE we have been researching how to use picturebooks and illustration to develop children’s literacy skills.  Our evidence shows that a focus on reading illustration develops children’s deeper comprehension skills and helps them to learn about character, setting, plot, pacing and structure in their own writing.

This is a unique opportunity to hear from leading children’s authors and from practitioners about using picturebooks across the primary years resulting in high quality outcomes in writing.

You’ll leave with a wealth of knowledge about how to put this research into practice in your school and will also have the opportunity to reflect on how your English Curriculum gives children the chance to discover and refine their own voice, in line with the latest guidance from Ofsted.

What is the Power of Pictures?
The Power of Pictures is a six year CLPE research project which has been supporting teachers to use picturebooks to enhance children’s reading comprehension and the composition of their own creative writing. It has now grown into a widely used website of free resources and a research project involving nearly 2000 children across the country.

About the Power of Pictures Conference
CLPE Learning Programme Leader Charlotte Hacking shared the summary of findings from our research and investigate the process we have undertaken to ensure that the Power of Pictures is evidence based, transforming practice in classrooms, bringing meaningful experiences to children and improving outcomes.

Children’s Laureate, Lauren Child gave a keynote speech about the importance of valuing children’s literature and illustration and appreciating that illustration is its own language, doing so much more than providing focus to words.

Teachers from across the UK who have been part of the Power of Pictures trial shared what they have learnt from the project and the impact it has had on the literacy of children in their classrooms. The workshops focused on:

• Creating opportunities for dialogic talk around picturebooks
• The impact of working with picturebooks with older children
• Empowering children as writers through making picturebooks
• Incorporating visual literacy and illustration in the wider curriculum.

Participants had the opportunity to attend two of these workshops over the course of the day.

The afternoon keynote was provided by award winning author Gill Lewis (Gorilla Dawn, Sky Hawk, A Story Like the Wind), who spoke about the importance of drawing as part of the writing process, based on her own experiences as a writer of extended fiction.

The Muswell Hill Children’s Bookshop sold a a range of high quality children’s books on the day, including a wide range of picturebooks and texts by the authors speaking, who were signing as part of the event.

Power of Pictures Co-creator, Illustrator and CLPE Patron Ed Vere also be spoke