Claire Culliford - Writing

Claire Culliford

AIM High Writing

Summary

Age range LKS2
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 supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Goals and has been translated into a large number of languages.

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.

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.