Earlier this week the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) launched an ambitious and timely campaign to raise funds aimed at refurbishing their central London headquarters with the creation of a permanent collection of children’s books to be used to support their work.
The announcement of the campaign (made on Monday 15th January) ran in key trade magazines The Bookseller and BookBrunch, which helped get things off to a great start. Louise Johns-Shepherd, CLPE’s CEO, has been interviewed on London Live.
As key champions of children’s literacy, the CLPE hopes that creating a Literacy Library will significantly help it continue to provide top-class training and resources for teachers, as well as providing a creative, engaging and accessible hub to be used across the children’s books industry.
As a charity, CLPE has long been instrumental in providing key support to educationalists through training and materials, and is responsible for the widely recognised Power of Reading and Power of Pictures projects, as well as the acclaimed CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award). Their literacy centre, rather fittingly a former school near Waterloo station, is used widely for events and meetings by other charities that often don’t have their own in-house facilities.
Everything I’ve learnt today has been something I could use in the classroom to improve the enjoyment that children get from books. Thank you so much. Each time I come to CLPE I leave with a revived interest in teaching. CLPE User
The refurbishment is designed to allow a dedicated and permanent space for a collection of 23,000 children’s books, chosen by the CLPE’s in-house experts, creating a comprehensive collection of titles for all primary ages that can be browsed and read with a view to their use in the classroom. Funds raised will also allow for the space in the centre to be enhanced for events, and as a fully resourced venue for large or smaller meetings.
Organisations and individuals are invited to pledge any amount between £100 and £10,000 in return for having a bookshelf, bookcase, alcove or collection at the centre dedicated to them. High profile names, including BookTrust, Beanstalk and key authors have already lent their support to the campaign.
The Crowdfunding campaign can be found here, where it is also possible to donate smaller amounts.
Having seen the inspiring work CLPE do to help schools to use drama, poetry and stories in creative ways I fully support their bid for improving the building. It’s so exciting to think of their library being able to display all their 23,000 books, and that it could become a nationally renowned training centre for teachers, librarians and literacy charities.
Julia Donaldson, Children’s author, former Children’s Laureate and CLPE Supporter
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