CLiPPA 2025 underway with Roger McGough announced as chair of the judges
CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) have announced the judges for this year’s CLiPPA, CLPE Poetry Award. ‘Patron saint of poetry’ Roger McGough is chair, and he is joined by 2024 winner Matt Goodfellow, Times children’s books editor Lucy Bannerman, Annette Brook of First Story, and teacher Saira Bano.
Roger McGough first chaired the award in 2015, when he criticised the lack of poetry books being published for children. Now, ten years on, poetry for children is booming and over twenty different publishers submitted new collections for this year’s CLiPPA while a recent report (National Literacy Trust 2024) revealed children’s appetite for poetry to be at the highest levels ever and with young fans finding it makes the world a better place.
Roger McGough says, ‘I have been close to the CLiPPA for many years, and for good reason: the 
energy, commitment and passion that goes into all that it does, i.e. literacy in schools and spreading the good word about the value of good words. I am delighted to be part of a judging panel that will choose the annual award from a shortlist representing poetry aimed at children of all ages. I have put on my wig and gown, read a few books, and already I am hooked, enthralled and impatient to meet up with my fellow judges. Poetry for kids, bring it on!’
CLPE’s unique and much-praised CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme brings the poets and poetry on each year’s shortlist into classrooms across the UK. It invites teachers to choose one of the collections shortlisted for the CLiPPA and share it with their pupils, using dedicated teaching sequences produced by CLPE including videos of the poets performing their work. Children choose 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 are then invited to perform live at the award ceremony at the National Theatre. CLPE estimate that over 40,000 children were involved in the CLiPPA in 2024 and that even more will participate in 2025.
The 2025 CLiPPA Shadowing is open for registration now and schools are invited to join CLPE online on 23 April to watch the live announcement of the shortlist, with poetry performances by shortlisted poets. The 2025 award ceremony will be held at the National Theatre on Friday 20 June.
Rebecca Eaves, CLPE’s Chief Executive, says, ‘We are delighted that Roger is returning as a judge in 2025 and proud there is such an abundance of new poetry to read. Our work with primary schools and research with teachers shows that when taught with confidence and enjoyment, poetry reaches children in ways other literary forms do not (Poetry In Primary Schools 2023). We can’t wait to share the judge’s shortlist with teachers and children across the country.’
BfK interviewed Matt Goodfellow when he won last year’s CLiPPA with The Final Year. Read the interview here.
Read our 1989 Authorgraph interview with Roger McGough here.
