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14Oct2010
From Government ministers to a child’s first book: Literacy at every level

Posted by Jonathan Douglas

The past month has been momentous for the National Literacy Trust. Our events at all three party conferences have moved the literacy agenda forward and our projects are reaching important milestones in their work to raise literacy levels in disadvantaged communities.

A key milestone for us is the 15^th birthday of the National Young Readers' Programme (formerly known as Reading Is Fundamental), which by the end of this year will have worked with over 320,000 disadvantaged children and given them over a million free books.

We recently heard from one school in London about Shani, who had participated in the National Young Readers' Programme. Her teacher told us that “both of Shani’s parents are illiterate and her four older brothers left school with a reading age considerably below average for their age”. After having taken part in our programme, Shani began to read and “as well as developing a love of reading outside of the classroom, her reading level has increased and she is on course to achieve the expected level for her age when she leaves primary school.”

This is a 15^th birthday that needs to be celebrated.

Our policy and advocacy work is having an impact. At our event at the Conservative Party Conference we heard Nick Gibb, the Minister for Schools, renew his commitment to literacy and announce that, although counter to the central policy of increasing the autonomy of schools, he was open to persuasion on the need for school libraries to be statutory. “Lobby hard,” he said.

The week before at our event at the Labour Conference, we heard Lord Knight, former Minister for Schools, thoughtfully reflecting on how Labour’s schools policy should have allowed for a stronger experience of reading for pleasure in the classroom and encouraged a greater involvement of the family.

We know that in the face of so many priorities the national literacy challenge needs constantly restating. On International Literacy Day (8 September) the National Literacy Trust welcomed HRH The Duchess of Cornwall to Trowbridge Library to an event to highlight the importance of family literacy and the continuing literacy challenge in the UK.

As an independent charity our ability to deliver and campaign is entirely dependent on the generosity of our supporters. As we anticipate the outcome of the Government’s spending review, we know that we will have to work harder than ever to raise funds to increase literacy levels. However, the demand for our work remains as strong as ever. One person in six faces inequality in the UK today because of their level of literacy. As our research has demonstrated, this is often related to poverty and social exclusion. So literacy is not simply an educational matter, it is a fundamental issue of social justice.

Over the next few months, we’ll be launching the National Literacy Trust’s individual giving programme. Our initial target is £15,000 to help celebrate the National Young Readers’ Programme’s 15^th anniversary and support its work. This could enable us to buy over 2,000 books for disadvantaged children to encourage them to read for pleasure. Regular giving is a great source of support for us, providing a stable source of income that will allow us to spend this where it is most needed.

We are already lucky to enjoy great support from lots of people. For example, even as you read this, Alison, who works for a national newspaper, is climbing Kilimanjaro to raise money for the National Literacy Trust. Don’t worry if the thought of mountaineering makes you dizzy, there are lots of ideas on our website, or you could try out your own idea. Let us know and we’ll add it to the list.

On Friday 5 November, I’ll be doing my own rather uncharacteristic and rather terrifying fundraising activity to support the campaign – a sponsored silence... You can sponsor me here.