My Work with the National Literacy Trust
The UK's National Literacy Trust are an independent charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life.
In Feb 2018 the National Literacy Trust launched a hub in my hometown of Swindon. The local hub is known locally as Swindon Stories. With Swindon Borough Council and WHSmith, Swindon Stories was set up to help equip children with literacy skills. Blip from my 2017 book Unplugged, features on flyers and posters for their campaign to encourage parents to put down their screens and spend time talking, reading and singing with their children (below).
In 2019 I illustrated Swindon Stories lamppost banners which are on display in Regent Street and the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, inspiring families to chat together and visit their local library. I’m really proud to see the banners on display in such busy areas of town and hope they will inspire as many Swindon families as possible to share stories and visit their local libraries.
In 2018 Swindon Stories launched a schools competition inspired by The Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane. HRH The Duchess of Cornwall came to announce the winners. I joined Her Royal Highness in North Swindon Library alongside storytellers Dom Berry and Olivia Armstrong. Children from Sevenfields, King William CE and Oliver Tomkins Primary Schools attended, and the winning poems were announced. The overall winner read aloud her poem. Her Royal Highness read a poem, too. While the poems were read, I sketched my visual interpretations.
In 2018 alone the National Literacy Trust worked with 43,913 pupils, encouraging them to read and write for pleasure and purpose. They gifted 239,894 brand new books through their programmes, community work and competitions; and gave 2,087 teachers engaging literacy resources and tools through their membership.
More recently I challenged school pupils to write a story about a dragon, for the WHSmith Ultimate Writing Challenge. Poet Karl Nova and writer Hilary Robinson each set their own challenge, too. The competition celebrated 15 years of WHSmith and the National Literacy Trust working together to bring exciting children's reading programmes to schools in the UK. I also auctioned off an opportunity to be in one of my picture books to help raise funds for the Trust. The winner's child features in Amazing which is also dedicated to him.
In 2020 The National Literacy Trust invited children and young people across the UK to take part in a creative writing competition based on the theme ‘Local Heroes’. They asked entrants to write a piece of creative writing about a local person that helps or inspires them. The winning entries for each area were published and I illustrated some of the covers. For the illustrations I took inspiration from some of my local heroes.
Currently I am taken part in their Connecting Stories campaign along with authors including Sathnam Sanghera and Konnie Huq to help address the literacy attainment gap across the NLT’s 14 Hub areas and increase children and young people’s access to literary experiences and books in communities most in need of support.
A record-breaking 63,600 people watched my live draw-along, presented by Holly King-Mand and hosted by the National Literacy Trust to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
For more information on the National Literacy Trust, including how to support their work, please visit www.literacytrust.org.uk.
To find out how you can support the National Literacy Trust, press here.
For more on Swindon Stories, please visit www.literacytrust.org.uk/communities/swindon
