Place reading at the heart of welcoming your class back to school with a range of flexible ideas and activities that begin with ice-breakers to refresh speaking and listening skills, and then introduce a range of easy-to- deliver activities plus a suggested read with discussion questions to encourage book talk and reading response. In addition to these Key Stage 2 activities you’ll find further resources for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 3 in the National Literacy Trust Resource bank on our website.

In partnership with the Royal British Legion we’ve developed new resources based on a range of fiction and non-fiction extracts, to help you explore Remembrance through a book club and discussions with your Key Stage 3 students. Showcasing experiences from past and present conflicts, these extracts explore different attitudes and perspectives, helping children understand the connection between service and sacrifice, and Remembrance. Our accompanying resources aim to develop pupils’ core reading comprehension skills, whilst also providing the opportunity to reflect on the theme of Remembrance and its relevance to our lives today. Further resources on this topic, including assemblies across all Key Stages, are available directly from the Royal British Legion’s website.

Written in partnership with Royal British Legion these presentations can be used in assemblies or the classroom to explore concepts of service and to help pupils reflect on the importance of Remembrance. Each presentation includes an accompanying set of teacher notes to help you deliver the assembly, plus ideas for follow-up activities. We have assemblies suited for: Key Stage 1 (ages 5 to 7) Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11) Key Stage 3 (ages 11 to 14). Learn more about our live-streamed Remembrance Assembly and free supporting Remembrance resources on the National Literacy Trust website.

These book club resources use Bali Rai’s title Now or Never to help KS2 pupils explore Remembrance. Based on real events that took place in World War Two, Now or Never (Little Rebels Award shortlist 2020) tells the story of 15-year-old, Fazal, from Rawalpindi in India, who lies about his age in order to enlist in the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. Our accompanying resources, produced for The Royal British Legion, aim to develop pupils’ core reading comprehension skills, whilst also providing the opportunity to reflect on the theme of Remembrance and its relevance to our lives today. We have provided discussion questions and chapter activities which provide an opportunity for pupils to reflect on the service and sacrifice of the armed forces across the UK, Commonwealth and Allied Nations, and to consider how this service and sacrifice is echoed in 2020. Find more Remembrance resources on the websites of the National Literacy Trust and the Royal British Legion.

Our Winter Wonderland hot topic builds on the excitement of Christmas to help you with ideas for literacy activities that support storytelling and oracy, writing, grammar, phonics and more. Covering ages 3 to 14, and including book suggestions and inspiration for activities that you can deliver in simple, quick ways as time permits, or expand for more in-depth learning. Explore the full range of National Literacy Trust calendar-linked literacy teaching resources literacy calendar on our website.

With these National Literacy Trust resources for Black History Month across KS1, KS2 and KS3, we’re celebrating Black literary history and shining the spotlight on some of our favourite Black authors, illustrators and iconic characters from children’s books. The resources have been developed to honour and uplift familiar and inspirational Black authors and illustrators, and are classroom activities that can be delivered anytime in the year. Find more calendar linked literacy resources on the National Literacy Trust website.

This Halloween resource provides teaching ideas and inspiration for bringing the fright into your classroom. Ideas for books which are perfect to read and enjoy with pupils aged 3-14 years Suggestions for speaking and listening activities including oral storytelling and performance poetry Ideas for writing linked to the theme including a fun grammar game to help students to revise word classes, plus ideas for building suspense in narrative writing. The activities are designed to be adaptable for teachers working across different age ranges, and for the time you have available. Find more Hot Topic resources for dates across the year on the National Literacy Trust website.

Further free resources are available including all of the resources for each lesson, a teacher guide, curriculum links, posters, videos of journalists and further tips for bringing the newsroom to your classroom by visiting the NewsWise webpages. The NewsWise unit of work is a cross-curricular English and PSHE unit of 16 lessons, covering news literacy through three core themes: Understanding the news: How and why is news produced? Critically navigating the news: What is fake news and how can I spot it ? What are the consequences of fake news? How can I distinguish between fact and opinion in the news? How can I identify rumour, speculation and bias in the news? Reporting news: What does a news report look and sound like? How do I structure a news report? How can I report my own news in a fair, balanced, truthful and interesting way? As well as our unit of work, you can also download our learning journey, which maps out pupils’ progression through the different NewsWise themes. The lessons have been created by Literacy specalists, PSHE specialists and journalists, and are closely mapped to the KS2 English curriculum and the PSHE programme of study. NewsWise is a free, cross-curricular news literacy project for 9 to 11-year-olds across the UK, set up by the Guardian Foundation, National Literacy Trust and PSHE Association and funded by Google. We aim to create a generation of news literate young people. Get involved and register your interest in our projectby visiting the programmes section of the Guardian Foundation website.

The National Literacy Trust produced this resource pack with BBC Learning, both to mobilise great writing and to encourage pupils to get involved in Red Nose Day! Focusing on comedy writing is also a perfect match for the core requirements for teaching English across the UK and helps deliver the key writing skills listed in this pack. As well as a series of three 60-minute teaching sequences, this resource also contains top tips from comedy industry producers, writers and performers. It focuses on three types of comedy writing: • Stand-up comedy – the writer performs words that put across their own particular view of the world • Sketch comedy – the writer turns a funny idea into a scene that people can perform • Caption comedy – the writer looks at an image and creates a funny line to go with it

This lesson plan uses Tower Bridge as a stimulus for pupils to explore how to use alliteration and personification in poetry for effect. It enables pupils to practise using alliteration and personification, and use independent writing skills to plan, draft, proof, edit and revise their work. This resource is part of the National Literacy Trust’s Young City Poets project, which uses cultural experiences to inspire pupils’ poetry writing.

The National Literacy Trust produced this resource pack with BBC Learning, both to mobilise great writing. Focusing on comedy writing is also a perfect match for the core requirements for teaching English across the UK and helps deliver the key writing skills listed in this pack. As well as a series of three 60-minute teaching sequences, including pupil-facing activities that can be launched directly onto the smartboard or printed for homework and extension, the pack also contains top tips from comedy industry producers, writers and performers to help pupils to write the funniest jokes, sketches and comedy captions.

The National Literacy Trust has produced this free resource pack with BBC Learning and BBC Comedy to mobilise great writing in the classroom. A focus on comedy writing is a perfect match for English core requirements across the UK and harnesses many key writing skills. This handbook provides a series of three flexible 60-minute teaching sequences. Each supports key curriculum requirements and includes key objectives, literacy outcomes, starters, main activities, plenaries and extension activities. The handbook also contains tips and quotes from comedians, writers and producers - to help students write the funniest routines, sketches and comedy captions that they can.