Claire Culliford - Writing
Claire Culliford
AIM High Writing
Summary
Age range KS1 and KS2
Books Yes
DBS Checked Yes
Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Claire is best known for her international series The Little Helpers, which has a strong climate science message.
About Claire
Claire Culliford has been a writer, teacher and translator for 20 years. She now writes environment themed books for children to share her passion for nature.
Claire is passionate about helping to raise awareness of global issues, in a very positive way, through the power of story. Her Little Helpers series won the British Airways World of Opportunity Award in 2019.
Claire often writes educational fiction, which is designed to be used in the classroom as a learning resource and a starting point for work on the themes contained within her stories. She continues to work in all areas of education, from lecturing at Leeds University in Film subtitling to using translations of her books to support young learners of Spanish at the Cervantes Institute.
As well as children’s literature, Claire undertakes commissions for art, culture and tourism installations, and writes poetry, screenplays, short stories for adults and scripts for TV and big screen animations. She loves inspiring children to pursue their creative talents and educating them about opportunities in the creative industries.
Claire’s AIM High Writing Days
Claire invites the children to step into the world of story with her for the day, putting them at ease with an ice-breaker to enable name sharing and swapping of information about their favourite words and books.
The content of the day then unfolds:
Years 1 and 2
Using the first book in The Little Helpers’ Series – Hector Helps Clean Up The Park – as a basis, the children pick a favourite animal and describe it using real adjectives and then invented rhyming adjectives. Students learn about the importance of characterisation by picking out special features to describe their favourite animal, which will then become the main character in the story they will each create during the day. Claire’s tips are interspersed with the children choosing colourful language to describe the natural environment their animal lives in.
In the afternoon, the focus is on identifying a problem and an imaginative solution for it. The children incorporate their characters, problems and solutions into a fun story, being as serious or silly as they like. Finally, they share their writing with each other and the whole group.
Years 3 and 4
Inspired by Penny Helps Protect The Polar Ice Caps, this AIM High Day is all about the importance of plot. Engaging characters are essential but without a good plotline, any story falls flat. Students create innovative, imaginative and adventurous plotlines involving environmental issues after hearing Penny’s story. Claire guides them in finding a problem and then creating an original - perhaps even a hilarious solution to it.
In the afternoon, we talk about characters and developing unforgettable ones for the storyline and its setting. Students think up crazy names for their characters to make sure they’re memorable and then plan how to add them into their plotline to produce an amazing finished story!
Years 5 and 6
Inspired by Claire’s book Bella Helps Increase Pollination, the children will be guided through the process of creating a story which is based around real-life nature, environment and wildlife facts.
This is a challenging day, designed to stretch students by having them engage in research – the stuff of real life authors! Claire has run environmentally themed days all over the world and feedback has always been incredibly positive. The emphasis is always on enjoying the discovery of real-life knowledge and learning about how it can be played with for the purposes of storytelling.
The day ends with a short period of Q and A so that students can ask Claire questions about the writing and publishing process, and even being a children’s book illustrator! Writers in this age group are often interested in how a book is put together. Claire aims to have students see the process as one they themselves can take part in as writers, inspiring them with practical tips to improve their skills and foster their passion for writing.
Curriculum Focus
4. Inclusion
4.1 Setting suitable challenges – “Teachers should set high expectations for every pupil. They should plan stretching work for pupils whose attainment is significantly above the expected standard.”
4.2 Responding to pupils’ needs and overcoming potential barriers for individuals and groups of pupils
4.2-4.6 All of these clauses are catered for in Claire’s AIM High Writing Days, which ensure equal opportunity for all participants and appropriate support for the development of their English for any participants attending for whom English is not their first language/is an additional language.
6. Language and literacy
6.1 “Teachers should develop pupils’ … writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for pupils, understanding the language provides access to the whole curriculum. Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects”.
6.3 Reading and Writing “Teachers should develop pupils’ reading and writing in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge. … Pupils should develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. They should be taught the correct use of grammar.
They should build on what they have been taught to expand the range of their writing and the variety of the grammar they use. The writing they do should include narratives, explanations, descriptions, comparisons, summaries and evaluations: such writing supports them in rehearsing, understanding and consolidating what they have heard or read.”
6.4 Vocabulary “Pupils’ acquisition and command of vocabulary are key to their learning and progress across the whole curriculum. Teachers should therefore develop vocabulary actively, building systematically on pupils’ current knowledge. They should increase pupils’ store of words in general; simultaneously, they should also make links between known and new vocabulary and discuss the shades of meaning in similar words. In this way, pupils expand the vocabulary choices that are available to them when they write.”
The creative writing that takes place during my AIM High Writing days enables pupils to learn, practise and consolidate the specific aspects referred to in these two clauses.
Science
The national curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
“develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.”
“develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.”
“are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.”
Claire’s AIM High Writing Days support these aims as they permit pupils to engage with these aims in an organic and holistic way through creative writing.
Living things and their habitats
The statutory requirements for each year groups’ programme of study is considered and catered for within Claire’s AIM High Writing Days. The subject matter in the stories the pupils produce involves writing about an animal character, the habitat where it lives and identifying potential environmental problems in these habitats and solutions to them.
A Selection of Claire’s Books
Hector is a kind little hedgehog who likes playing with his friends in the park. When he sees the old park keeper has a problem he wants to help. But what can a hedgehog do for a human being?
Suitable for Year groups 1 -2
Kati is a kangaroo and she enjoys hopping around the Australian woodland. Kati has a koala friend called Keli. Kati is shocked to hear that Keli is running out of eucalyptus leaves to eat. What can a kangaroo do to help? Brave Kati has an idea to help her friend find the food he needs.
Suitable for Year groups 5-6
Bookings
To book Claire Culliford for an AIM High day, please contact aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Claire also offers author visits to schools and a range of settings, click here for more information.