News from the Reading Agency

OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LAUNCH: Last week Michael Morpurgo launched a golden summer of reading and storytelling for children at the British Library. It marked the start of the London 2012 Festival's children's reading activities, of which StoryLab with libraries is an important part. He was joined by 120 children from schools in Camden and Islington (Edith Neville, St Aloysius and St Peter & St Paul Primary schools). There was nice coverage in the Telegraph and it is also featured on the London2012 website.


PUBLIC DEBATE: Only 43.6% of boys said that they enjoyed reading and 56.2% of girls, according to the National Literacy Trust 2012 survey. The Reading Agency is out a lot at the moment, taking part in events about how to tackle this, and are glad to be working with fellow charities Booktrust and the National Literacy Trust and author Michael Rosen on a joint summit in July.

It's hugely topical, since Ofsted recommended that all schools have a reading for pleasure policy. Reading Agency director Miranda McKearney is chairing the Moving English Forward conference on 6th July for teachers and young people's advisor, Sue Jones, is running a workshop at the Guardian/British Library Reading for Pleasure seminar also on 6th July for secondary school teachers and librarians on the use of social media. The Reading Agency is delighted that government ministers are interested in their work in this area - schools minister Nick Gibb visited Rose Green Junior School, Bognor Regis on 29th June to see how schools and libraries work together to promote the Summer Reading Challenge.  

Finds out more about the Reading Agency and the brilliant work they do at http://readingagency.org.uk/