Creating a generation of keen readers to tackle Britain's literacy crisis

Booktrust, National Literacy Trust (NLT) and The Reading Agency (TRA) joined forces last week (Thursday 19 July 2012) in the fight to boost literacy levels among Britain's children. At a joint summit on Reading for Enjoyment they called on schools and the Government to support their pupils to become enthusiastic readers in order to create a more literate generation.

 

Former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, who championed the summit, outlined Ofsted's recommendation to the Government, that all schools should develop policies to promote reading for enjoyment. He went on to criticise the government for failing to take this recommendation on board and claimed there is no evidence to suggest that the policies the Government are implementing - assessments of SSP (Systematic Synthetic Phonics) and SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation And Grammar) - are of any value when it comes to improving literacy across the board. On the contrary, Rosen insisted, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that policies relating to reading for enjoyment can have positive effects on literacy. 'There are millions spent on SSP, Rosen concluded. 'And virtually nothing on reading for enjoyment and yet research shows exactly the opposite. And that's what we need to address today."

 

Sarah de Zoysa from NLT then presented research about the reading habits of children, followed by Fiona Collins from the University of Roehampton who spoke about the importance of teachers as readers and provided some research around reading for enjoyment. A spokesperson from the Department for Education expressed the Government's commitment to working with the various bodies and encouraging reading for enjoyment in schools.

 

Children's author and former Booktrust online writer in residence, Bali Rai, chaired a panel discussion with six Year 10 students about their reading interests and habits, school libraries and what encourages them to read. What emerged was the importance of teachers making book recommendations and more importantly, teachers having casual conversations with students about books. It was this personal interaction which students seemed to appreciate most.

 

Martin Cooper, Deputy Head Teacher of Mile Oak Primary School followed by talking through a number of inspiring measures his school has implemented in order to encourage reading for enjoyment. Among many things these included: establishing a library; having a dedicated reading and writing space for students; having 'reading champion' shirts for students who are appointed as positive reading role models; book swaps; book shops; having a football reading week; and bringing in reading volunteers and authors.

 

The summit ended with a lively Q&A, chaired by Antonia Byatt from Arts Council England, with the CEOs of the three respective charities - Viv Bird from Booktrust, Jonathan Douglas from the National Literacy Trust and Miranda McKearney from The Reading Agency. Viv Bird concluded with a strong message to the Government:

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, Booktime 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 enjoyment as children make the sometimes difficult transition from primary to secondary education as well as encouraging a whole school reading culture. Read For My School is a new national initiative for students in Years 5 and 6 in England, from Booktrust, the Pearson Foundation and supported by DfE.