Literacy event works to improve child reading rate

Cornwall's only literature festival for children is expecting 4,000 visitors this Friday and Saturday, organisers say.

The St Austell Festival of Children's Literature, held at locations around the town, was set up three years ago by the head teacher of Carclaze Community Primary School to improve pupils' literacy.

It has now expanded to include schools from mid Cornwall, so students from Newquay, Liskeard and the clay villages can take part too.

It started out with just 500 locals and schoolchildren turning up for events and workshops run by authors and illustrators, but the £1-per-talk event has proved popular and has grown as parents seek to engage their children with reading.

According to figures from research conducted in 2024, the National Literacy Trust reported children surveyed in the South West of England were among the least likely to read for pleasure.

Just 35% did such reading, compared to 40% in places such as London; and only 16% said they wrote for pleasure for least 10 minutes daily.

A year-on-year decline in children's interest in picking up a book in their own time was something that worried Carclaze head teacher Simon Pollard, prompting him to set up the festival.

He said: "The current rates of choosing to read [are] dropping all the time. Parents are not necessarily knowing how to read to children.

"There's definitely been a sharp decline since the [Covid-19] pandemic.

"We just want communities and families to fall in love with reading because we know, if you choose to read, the outcomes for you when you become an adult are exponentially better.

"We really need to teach people how to share books together again."

The festival has a day of events for schools on the Friday. On Saturday, children and parents can book talks and workshops.

Author and illustrator Tom McLaughlin, from Exeter, is going to be running a comic book-making workshop and said pictures and drawing were a good way to get children engaged in the process of creating and telling stories.

He said: "Drawing, for me, inspires the words, and words inspire the drawing.

"We see this with kids who do exercises in class, when they get a picture and have to write a story about it.

"It helps you write a story if you have something to work with visually. Some kids respond much better to visual learning."

Tom has dyslexia and said he found school difficult.

He said he hoped sharing his writing journey and tips would give reluctant young storytellers a chance to shine.

A partnership with the children's newspaper First News will allow some of the pupils to see their own work published.

Junior journalists are going to be interviewing authors at the events and get their work in the paper.

Helen Mulley, head of education for First News, said it was a great partnership and "a good way to get children writing".

She said: "We talk a lot about reading for pleasure. Something we don't talk about quite as much is writing for pleasure.

"Last year, the National Literacy Trust did some research and they found out enthusiasm for writing was an all-time low.

"But one of the ways to boost children's desire to write is to give them a real reason to write.

"Let them choose what to write about and give them audience to write for... so that's what we are doing."

The festival's first official patron is the best-selling author AF Steadman, known for her popular Skandar series.

She has family links to Cornwall and said she wanted to give the event her support when she realised it was going to help families enjoy a literature festival in their own county.

She said: "I was really honoured... I said I have to do this festival.

"I think the thing that really convinced me it was such an amazing thing was that it was going to cost people £1 a ticket.

"For me that was a really really big deal, especially as someone who, when I was growing up, couldn't afford books."

Public events for St Austell Festival of Children's Literature are being held on Saturday 14 June in various locations around the town, with tickets costing £1 per talk.

The cost has been kept low by seeking out grants and funding from the town council, the Cornwall Community Fund and local businesses sponsorship.

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