Special Guest Northern Highlight - Read Manchester
SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT
Cheryl Pridgeon & Margaret Duff, Read Manchester
Can you tell us about Read Manchester and your partnership with Manchester City Council and the National Literacy Trust?
Read Manchester is a partnership campaign led by Manchester City Council and The National Literacy Trust to encourage reading for pleasure in Manchester. We know that reading has such positive benefits for all ages, so our campaign has many different strands to appeal across the generations. We started in 2016 and since then have delivered a whole range of programmes, events and initiatives:
- Our ‘Take 10’ message runs throughout all of our campaigns - reading for as little as 10 minutes a day can make a difference to a child’s future outcomes as well as having a positive impact on wellbeing (whatever your age)
- Bee Ready, Bee a Reader transition read for 7,300 Year 6 pupils. This year saw all primary school leavers being gifted the same book with suggested enrichment activities to do during the summer
- A literary BookBench trail brought over 50 benches to the city that were designed by local schools and community groups, which then formed a city-wide art trail
- Manchester Reading Ahead was a ‘Manchester spin’ on the Reading Ahead programme from the Reading Agency and 1,000 adults completed the challenge to read six books or magazines
- We’ve also hosted two national World Book Day events in amazing venues (Concorde and at the Velodrome) for school children, with top children’s authors
We work with lots of partners and have a wide-ranging board and steering group, including Manchester City of Literature, local universities, charities, public health, Adult Education, schools, Early Years and the Manchester Literature Festival and Manchester Children’s Book Festival, amongst others.
Tell us about your gifting resources to support families and schools.
We have gifted over 50,000 books and resources during the last four years. We know that getting books into the hands of children can be so crucial to sparking an interest in reading. We have fantastic libraries in the city, so our book-gifting often goes hand in hand with a message to use libraries too!
By far the largest number of books we have given has been since lockdown in March. Many families and children have no (or limited) access to the internet, and were unable to access the online reading offers from libraries and publishers. They needed books and resources that they could access at home, whenever they wanted to. We gifted books, magazines and stationery to children and families through 30+ different local organisations, including food banks, summer playschemes, community centres and cultural organisations.
Can you tell us about your recent partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester?
One of our new projects to look out for is our Reading Map for 8-11 year olds. We’ve worked in partnership with TfGM to develop a reading map based on the Metrolink tram lines, with the idea of Where will reading take you? We’re going to gift a map to all children in Years 5 and 6 (approximately 15,000!) in the hope that this will encourage them to try new authors and genres over the next few months.
What for you is the 'spirit of the North'?
The 'spirit' of the north is embodied in the symbol of Manchester’s worker bee. We’ve taken inspiration from its tenacious spirit and industriousness as it symbolises working together and a determination to continue and succeed. It’s a part of Manchester’s coat of arms, and the city has been through some very difficult times in the past few decades but has remained strong and undefeated. At Read Manchester, we’ve used this bee symbol as part of our reading campaigns and trails.
Why is it so important that we continue to promote children's books in the North?
All children need books and stories. Reading and literacy are the gateway to improved outcomes in so many areas so it’s important that we promote that as widely as possible. It’s not just about the improved outcomes though – it’s about inspiration, imagination and opportunities. High levels of deprivation do mean that many families don’t have books at home or perhaps don’t see themselves as readers because they haven’t yet connected with the right book. Children also need to see themselves in stories, in terms of their experience, culture and community.
Having a northern publishing base means that we can start to have more local conversations and work together as a region to promote books and authors. We were told recently that an author couldn’t travel from London to Manchester in a day because it was ‘too far’! Our schools and audiences are so keen to connect with authors, poets and performers – there is a real appetite to grow readers in Manchester! It would also be fantastic if local talent could be nurtured to become the authors, illustrators and publishers of the future.
You can find out more about Read Manchester on Twitter at @MancLibraries and @Literacy_Trust and following the hashtag #ReadMCR
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