Year 5 & 6 blog:

Frank Cottrell Boyce - Children's Laureate 

Pupils in Year 5 and 6 watched a live event with Frank Cottrell Boyce today, the new children's laureate for 2024-2026. Frank shared extracts from his stories, including "Cosmic" and "Framed" and talked about his favourite books growing up and the importance of literacy!

He answered questions as part of the webinar that had been sent in - we were thrilled that one of Mansel Park's questions was answered live on air, about the importance of each primary school having a well stocked library!

The Children's Laureate in the UK is a prestigious role awarded to a celebrated children's author or illustrator. The laureate serves as an advocate for children's literature, championing the importance of reading and creativity in young people's lives. Their responsibilities include promoting literacy, inspiring a love for books, and encouraging young readers and writers through campaigns, workshops and public engagements. 

As the 2024-2026 UK Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce has outlined ambitious goals to make books and reading more accessible to all children, emphasizing their transformative power. His campaign, "Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future," focuses on addressing inequalities in access to books and tackling the growing number of children living in poverty. He aims to position reading as a basic right and a crucial tool for improving life chances, especially for disadvantaged children.

Our Reading Ambassadors have written to Frank about their thoughts on reading for pleasure and the shortage of primary school libraries in the UK, and what he may be able to do to help! We hope that he will reply soon! Each of our partnership schools has a dedicated 'Frank Cottrell Boyce' display complete with his books, so that all of our pupils know about the fantastic work he carries out as Children's Laureate and can enjoy his stories!

 If you missed the live webinar, you can watch it here!