From the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation
Below is a range of literacy resources and ideas for schools and teachers, from the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. You can find out more about the Foundation, our activities, events and literacy programs on this website.
Student Short Story Writing Competition
Annual short story writing competition, free to enter, judged by a panel of teachers and writers. Winning stories are recorded as an audiobook by award-winning narrator, Alison Larkin, and published worldwide. 18+ can enter the adult competition direct, you can read the winners of the 2022 writing competition here.
Under 18s category entered via a parent or school. Contact us for information on how your school or class can enter the under 18s writing competition, launching in March 2023.
30 Day Literacy Challenge
Fun daily literacy challenges take 15 mins to complete. For example: Create a social media bio for your favorite literary character. Short daily videos provide more information about each challenge. Students can post responses on social media (including a hashtag of your choice to track the responses), on any school comms platform or in the classroom.
Tea for Literacy - Fundraising Event
Download a pack including original recipes that Jane Austen would have eaten (from the Austen family cookbooks - you can see a sample here), a Regency games pack, Jane Austen quiz, hosting guide, playlist, branded menu, name cards and everything you need to host a fun Jane Austen Tea for Literacy.
100% of funds raised will be spent on literacy programs for developing communities, choose which literacy program your school or class would like to support.
There is scope for lots of ideas and fun, but given the hectic nature of schools, we have ideas on how to keep your fundraising afternoon tea and fundraiser simple. Contact us to register and for a hosting pack, free to schools.
Optional - Caroline Jane Knight, our Founder & Chair, Jane Austen’s fifth great niece and the last of Jane Austen’s nieces to grow up in Chawton on the family’s ancestral estate where Jane herself lived and wrote, can be booked to join your Jane Austen Tea for Literacy event in person or virtually and talk to students about Jane Austen’s life and works.
Personalised Bookplates
Bookplates were commonly used in Jane Austen's time, when books were expensive, precious and often lent to others, to mark the owner’s name on the book.
Bookplates are not so commonly used today, but can play an important role in teaching our children the value of books and stimulate conversation about which are your favourite books and why. We offer a choice of bookplates, beautifully designed by artists, personalised with names in Jane Austen’s handwriting.
Click here to see our range of bookplates and to purchase individual bookplates.
For more information about our special offers on the range and personalised bookplates for your classroom or school
If you would like to run a bookplate designed competition in your school, with the winning bookplate added to our collection and promoted worldwide to raise money for literacy programs in developing communities.
Use our Bookplates page as inspiration for novel study in your own class - free for Teachers
Pride & Possibilities Journal
Our free monthly journal has over 90 carefully curated articles written by academics, Jane Austen’s family, authors and the worldwide Jane Austen community covering a broad range of topics about Jane’s life, works, Chawton home and the extraordinary fandom that surrounds Austen today.
You can subscribe free to our journal at the bottom of this page. For previous issues, click here.
We welcome contributions to our journal. Contact us if you, or a student, would like to write an article for Pride & Possibilities and have a topic you think may be of interest.
Caroline Jane Knight
Caroline shares more than Jane’s name and DNA. As a direct descendant of Jane’s brother, Edward Austen Knight, Caroline is the last of Jane’s nieces to grow up at Chawton House, in the South of England, on the family’s ancestral estate where Jane herself lived and wrote. Caroline explored the same places around Chawton House and its grounds as Jane did, dined from the same china at the same table in the same dining room, read in the same library and shared family traditions.
Caroline is Founder & Chair of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. Caroline is also Patron of Jane Austen Regency Week and returns to Chawton and neighbouring Alton, in Hampshire, England, for the annual 9 day festival. Caroline has spoken to audiences around the world about Jane Austen’s life and works, and growing up in the shadows of a literary icon.
Caroline can be booked to speak at schools and universities, in person or virtually. Caroline has a valid Working With Children Check. Contact us for more details.
Book Week / Literacy Week / Book Club
Looking for ideas? As well as directly using the ideas and website resources inspired by Jane Austen – such as our Literacy Challenges - you could also use Jane’s inspiration as a stepping stone for your own customized activities for Book Week, Literacy Week or school Book Club.
For example, Australia’s national Book Week every August, includes an annual theme. The 2023 CBCA Book Week theme is Read, Grow, Inspire.
Staff/student writing competition: Take a line from Jane Austen, or from a variety of novels of interest, and ‘grow’ that line into a micro story, short story or poem that has an ‘inspiring’ theme, message or final twist.
Other Jane Austen Learning Resource Links
Below are details and links to other Jane Austen related literacy and learning resources from the Jane Austen community and other learning organisations. Information and links are provided as a service: the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation is not responsible for the content of the initiatives and request you assess the suitability of any of these resources for your needs.
Please contact us with recommendations of other free Austen related learning and literacy resources to add to this page.
PBS LearningMedia - MASTERPIECE Literary Drama
Clips of key scenes from some of MASTERPIECE’s most popular adaptations are available to stream on PBS LearningMedia, a free and trusted platform providing digital media resources for school teachers across all subjects. Teaching tips, activities, discussion questions, background essays, and author bios accompany the streaming videos.
In the MASTERPIECE Literary Drama Collection, you’ll find resources for book-based adaptations ranging from The Diary of Anne Frank to Great Expectations to Jane Eyre. The MASTERPIECE-produced versions of Austen’s Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Sanditon are also in the Collection.
Click here for more information on how you might use these films to support your literacy work.