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Create a generation of keen readers to tackle Britain’s literacy crisis say leading charities
19 Jul 2012
The National Literacy Trust, Booktrust and The Reading Agency are joining forces in the fight to boost literacy levels among Britain’s children. At a joint summit today, championed by writer and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, they will call on schools to support their pupils to become enthusiastic readers in order to create a more literate generation.
A wealth of research shows the crucial significance of children reading independently and enthusiastically. It has even been shown to be more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status (OECD, 2002), while National Literacy Trust research in 2011 found that young people who enjoy reading very much are more likely to read above the expected level for their age.
However, despite new Government and Ofsted recommendations for schools to focus on reading for enjoyment, a new survey commissioned by Booktrust shows that only one third of Britain’s schools (39%) have a policy in this area.
Jonathan Douglas of the National Literacy Trust, Viv Bird of Booktrust and Miranda McKearney of The Reading Agency, issued the following joint statement:
We are united in our belief that encouraging children to read for enjoyment is a crucial component in the drive to meet the UK’s huge literacy challenge. The Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, says that Britain’s children still lag a year behind their counterparts in Europe. With literacy skills becoming more and more important for our economic success, the time for action is now.
We welcome the increasing recognition of the importance of reading for enjoyment in Ofsted’s Moving English Forward report and the Government’s draft curriculum for primary schools, and will be working together to provide practical and inspiring support to help respond to this increased focus.
Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust:
Our research shows that many of the current generation of children do not enjoy reading and never choose to read outside of the classroom. This is impacting on literacy skills and is a significant issue for children’s futures. In our work with a network of schools across the country we are helping to promote reading for enjoyment with exciting pupil competitions and innovative programmes like Premier League Reading Stars; as well as providing opportunities for schools to share their successful approaches in this area.
Viv Bird, Chief Executive of Booktrust:
Booktrust’s national schools programmes and resources have proved to be invaluable in helping pupils become enthusiastic and confident readers, so critical for their personal and educational development. The recent Ofsted report and draft primary curriculum provide a welcome opportunity for schools to take a wider view of reading within the curriculum and really crack the challenge of getting all children to enjoy reading.
Miranda McKearney, Chief Executive of The Reading Agency:
As a charity The Reading Agency specializes in working with public libraries, who now have a powerful, more creative and joined up reading offer. There is an urgent need for schools’ reading for enjoyment policies to build in libraries’ community support. We’re calling for every child to be a member of their library, and for school improvement plans to embrace better partnership working with the whole library system.
Ends.
For more information and interview requests please contact:
Will White on will.white@booktrust.org.uk or 0208 875 4583, or
Alice Ingall on alice.ingall@booktrust.org.uk or 020 8875 4827
Notes to editors
National Literacy Trust
The National Literacy Trust is the charity dedicated to raising literacy levels in the UK. They campaign to increase Government and public awareness of the importance of literacy; deliver targeted projects in disadvantaged communities; and help schools and other settings to effectively support literacy. They provide a network for schools and a range of support including programmes, resources, training and pupil competitions which encourage reading for enjoyment. Find out more at www.literacytrust.org.uk
Booktrust
Booktrust is an independent reading and writing charity that makes a nationwide impact on individuals, families and communities. Booktrust makes a significant positive contribution to the educational outcomes of children from the earliest age. Booktrust is responsible for a number of successful national reading promotions, sponsored book prizes and creative reading projects aimed at encouraging readers to discover and enjoy books. These include the Children’s Laureate, Bookstart and Bookbuzz, which offers secondary schools the chance to give their Year 7 pupils the choice of a book from a specially selected list of 17. Bookbuzz aims to support independent reading for pleasure as children make the sometimes difficult transition from primary to secondary education as well as encouraging a whole school reading culture. www.booktrust.org.uk
The Reading Agency
The Reading Agency is an independent charity working to inspire more people to read more and ensure everyone has an equal chance to become a reader. It specialises in helping libraries make more social impact through reading. It runs big programmes and partnerships across the whole library network. The biggest of these is the Summer Reading Challenge, which involves 780,000 children. The Reading Agency is funded by the Arts Council. www.readingagency.org.uk
