EURO 2017 & Reading for Pleasure

In July 2017 the England Women’s football team will be in Holland to play in the EURO 2017 Championships. I am working with the Football Association and the National Literacy Trust to use the tournament to promote reading and writing for pleasure in schools.

Most of our material will be launched on 6th June at www.literacytrust.org.uk. Until then, this is a summary of what you’ll be getting.

Literacy with the Lionesses is a toolkit of reading and writing ideas for the classroom and beyond. It features book lists and interviews with female writers who make a living from writing about football in newspapers, magazines and in books, as well as other games, activities and comprehensions.

Dutch Diaries is a nine-part live story that will be published three times a week from 3rd July. It is ‘live’ in that it will be written as the tournament approaches and begins. It will be about the Lionesses and their progress in EURO 2017, but it will also feature a story line related to Anne Frank’s diary and the house in Holland where she and her family hid from the Nazis.

Dutch Diaries will be written in the style of Dork Diaries, a very popular children’s book series, and will be from the point of view of a girl in a school trip to Holland to visit the Anne Frank House and watch England’s opening match.

From 3rd July I will be setting nine EURO 2017 Writing Challenges, each published on the same day as the story chapters. These will feature events from the tournament, as well as other stories in the news around the time.

I will be writing a EURO 2017 blog from June 6th. It will feature stories about the Lionesses and my research for Dutch Diaries, which includes a trip to the Anne Frank House with my wife and daughter. You will be able to find it at www.tompalmer.co.uk/2017.

The idea behind all this work is to promote reading and writing for pleasure through the buzz of a major sporting tournament. It is also designed to help you to encourage your pupils and children to support England Women as they try to become the first England team – male or female – to become European Champions.

Literacy with the Lionesses will be free to access. As will Dutch Diaries and my EURO 2017 blog. Dutch Diaries and the writing exercises will be published on the following mornings, available from 8 a.m. if not before: July 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19 and 20.

Feel free to email me via this website if you need any more information.

Thank you for reading. And please do pass this information on to any other schools and groups you are part of.