The National Literacy Trust: Building a literate nation

Literacy opens up so much human potential - potential that is as essential to the economic development of the country as it is to the personal development of the individuals concerned, particularly in a rapidly changing technological age. The National Literacy Trust is a registered charity that aims to make an independent, strategic contribution to the creation of a society in which all can enjoy the appropriate skills, confidence and pleasures of literacy to support their educational, economic, social and cultural goals.

The Trust maintains an extensive website (www.literacytrust.org.uk) with literacy issues, research news and a searchable database detailing literacy practice nationwide. Other activities include promoting and facilitating the development of literacy partnerships; organising an annual conference; and publishing the quarterly magazine Literacy Today (the Educational Publishing Company, subscription £18, tel 01273 882338). Julia Strong, the Trust’s deputy director, provides training and consultancy on whole-school approaches to literacy for the secondary sector, from one-day conferences that gather together some of the key practitioners of the literacy world to individual INSET days for schools and local authorities. In all cases, the emphasis is on bringing together the best of good practice from a range of approaches.

With funding from the Department for Education and Employment, the Trust runs the National Reading Campaign, an initiative that is building on the work of the National Year of Reading (also managed by the Trust, from September 1998 - August 1999). The campaign works to provide a national framework for reading promotion, using regular themes that have included ‘Reading Champions’ for men and boys, and ‘Getting a Head Start’ for young families. It provides information about reading promotion work taking place around the country, ideas and examples of good practice, and support including web pages, a newsletter and promotional materials such as posters.

The Trust also incorporates Reading Is Fundamental, UK which provides opportunities for thousands of children to choose books to keep for free. Through a programme of activities throughout the year, underpinned by generous discounts from the book trade, RIF promotes the pleasure of reading and book ownership to children and their families, emphasising the fun as well as the fundamentals of reading. Through its website (www.rif.org.uk) RIF provides advice, information, links with authors and publishers, and word fun for all those interested in children’s books and reading: parents, teachers and, importantly, the children themselves.

The National Literacy Trust is trying to improve the quality of people’s lives through raising literacy standards. Every person in the country should be able to experience that sense of being able to soar to a point of vantage that being fully literate can bring. Practitioners have built up vast expertise about how to intervene effectively to improve literacy whether for young children, disaffected youth or adults who have fallen behind. The Trust’s role is to pull together the best ideas and to help everyone share good practice.

National Literacy Trust
Swire House
59 Buckingham Gate
London
SW1E 6AJ

Tel: 020 7828 2435
Fax: 020 7931 9986
Email: contact@literacytrust.org.uk
Web: www.literacytrust.org.uk