Liz Berry to chair judging panel for the CLPE poetry award in a year of record submissions

Poet Liz Berry will chair the judging panel for the Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award (CLiPPA), in a year which saw a record number of entries. 

The award celebrates published poetry for children, with past winners including Michael Rosen, John Agard, Jackie Kay and the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho. More than 40 new poetry collections were submitted for the award this year.

The judging panel also includes teacher and writer Darren Chetty, and Poetry Society learning and participation co-ordinator Billie Manning. They are joined by teacher and UKLA representative Imogen Maund and Laura Mucha, who was shortlisted for the CLiPPA in 2022.

The CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme brings the poets and poetry on the shortlist into classrooms across the country, aiming to encourage children to perform their favourite poems. The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) estimates that over 40,000 children will participate in 2024.

Registration will open on 4th March and the scheme will launch on 8th May with a live shortlist announcement in schools. As part of the scheme, teachers are invited to choose one of the collections shortlisted for the CLiPPA and share it with the children, using dedicated teaching sequences produced by CLPE, as well as videos of poets performing their work. Children select a favourite poem from a shortlisted collection to work up into a performance, which is recorded and sent to a CLPE judging panel.

Winning schools will be invited to perform live at the awards ceremony at the National Theatre on Friday 12th July.

Berry said: “If we’re lucky enough to meet poems when we’re children, we come to them with an open heart and never learn to feel afraid of them but to see them as companions on our journey. The best poetry meets young people where they are and then carries them off to dreams and possibilities. As a teacher, parent and a poet, I love reading and sharing poems with young people and seeing that magic happen."

Rebecca Eaves, CLPE’s new chief executive, added: “From the earliest nursery rhymes, poetry is an essential part of a child’s journey in reading, writing and oracy. As we enter CLiPPA’s 21st year as the UK’s leading award for published children’s poetry, we’re delighted to have such a brilliant line up of judges, led by Liz Berry, to whittle down our record number of submissions."

The CLiPPA is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Arts Council England.