Working together to improve life
chances for all Chesil children

Chesil Poetry Festival

Wow - What a day! All the participants in our very first Chesil Poetry Festival were absolutely brilliant. The performances were outstanding; such a wide range of poems from Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl to Maya Angelou and Brian Bilston. Students made exceptional progress in their oracy skills by working togetherto perform a poem and from learning many skills to help them speak in front of an audience. Our thanks to Weymouth Pavilion for hosting such an incredible event and to Toby Yarwood LAMDA coach who worked with all 384 pupils who took part in this event. Well done everyone - we couldn't be prouder!

Chesil Book Week 2024

This year, Chesil schools came together to organise a jam-packed week of booky brilliance which also incorporated World Book Day. There were different events across Chesil schools including dressing up, story hat competitions, decorated classrooms, book swaps, quizzes, podcasts as well as live interactive sessions with poets and authors. Year 9 pupils visited their former primary schools to share a story and parents were invited in for bacon butties and cups of tea to enjoy a book with their child. All schools did a fantastic job of raising the profile of Reading for Pleasure. Awesome!
Take a look at some of our fantastic photos:

What is the Chesil Literacy Project?

We are a collaboration of 15 primary, 4 secondary schools, 2 special schools and a learning centre. We are working together to promote all aspects of literacy.
Weymouth and Portland is one of the most deprived areas of the country and our ambition is to improve literacy outcomes for our children helping them to communicate more effectively, be ambitious for themselves and improve their life chances.

2023-2024

This year our focus is on oracy as we know what a difference this can make to social mobility and future life chances. Our teachers will be trained by experts from Noisy Classroom, helping our pupils become persuasive speakers, critical listeners, analytical thinkers and engaged citizens.
All participating classes will take part in a poetry and discussion performance at Weymouth Pavilion on 24 April 2024. Parents and carers are invited to attend.

Working with The National Literacy Trust

All schools within the Chesil Literacy Project have membership to the National Literacy Trust which we intend to use as our central focus for joint working this year. A calendar of events has been created to unite us in opportunities and to share best practice and ideas amongst this community. We believe in sharing the workload wherever we can, and encourage all our school English leaders to work together where possible.

Our Partners

We also have opportunities from Bournemouth University, The English Hub and other great partners to enhance curriculum opportunities in primary, secondary and special schools.

Get in touch!