New research from the National Literacy Trust shows that over half (56%) of children and young people aged 8 – 18 don't enjoy reading in their free time, and in England, 16.4% of adults, or 7.1 million people, can be described as having "very poor literacy skills.*
This is something that we're keen to change!
Not only can reading improve educational outcomes, but it can also improve mental health and self-esteem. 3 in 5 children and young people aged 5 to 18 said that they read because it relaxed them, and nearly 1 in 2 read because it made them feel happy.**
At Essex Libraries we have a range of ways that we support literacy of our residents. Click on the links to find out more:
Everyone’s Literacy Areas
We have Literacy Areas in all 74 libraries, housing new stock that is aimed at developing readers and supporting literacy difficulties. Across these areas, a total of 50,053 books have been loaned between June 2022 and June 2023. There's a particular demand for early phonics books and grammar support, as shown by the number of Actiphons and Word Adventure published titles that have been loaned.
Through linking with ACL tutors and Read Easy reading coaches, this area has provided adult students with support for reading for pleasure. The initiative has also created opportunities for volunteering across Essex.
Find out more about our Everyone’s Literacy Areas.
Community Connector outreach team
The library service has a team of Community Connectors who each serve a different area across the county. Their role is to go out into the community and connect with residents, bringing the library service to the people. Our team has attended a variety of community events across Essex to promote all the library has to offer, as well as visit schools, nurseries, and family centres to deliver storytime and literacy-based activities. If you have an event where you would like the library to attend, please contact us.
Twinkl membership
We are proud to offer our customers quality activities to support their growing literacy skills. We are members of the Twinkl platform, which allows us to share quality resources with our customers ranging from wordsearches, comprehension activities, phonics activities and colouring pages. You can find our activity sheets in our Everyone’s Literacy Areas or in the children’s library. If you are looking for a specific activity, just ask our friendly staff and we’ll see what we can do!
Literacy volunteers
At Essex Library Service we're extremely fortunate to have a host of amazing volunteers on board, supporting our literacy aims. With the help of Volunteer Essex we have now recruited a number of volunteers across Essex that run children’s reading groups, adult reading support sessions, creative writing groups, phonics clubs, and facilitate our Lego® in Libraries sessions. We listen to our volunteers and utilise their skillset to offer a range of exciting opportunities for our customers. If you have something to offer and would like to join our team of volunteers, please get in touch to let us know!
Lego® in Libraries
With the support of Essex Year of Numbers, Digital Essex and Multiply we are excited to say that in Essex we have 70 LEGO Education Spike kits. These allow us to run our fantastic Lego® in Libraries programme. Children aged 6-11 can take part in a one-hour session, where using Lego they can develop their reading, learn to code and practise their problem-solving skills, and develop their communication skills as they work with others. We have had great success with this programme and receive regular feedback from customers sharing their enjoyment of what we have to offer. Sets are available across every district in Essex, so check if your local library is running sessions.
National Literacy Trust partnership
The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that was established in 1993, with the aim of well-established charity in the UK that supports reading across all ages. With the support of the Trust Essex Libraries launched Essex Stories, where we have focused work on developing communication and reading with children in Early Years. This has allowed us to share training with staff and make links with resources such as the BBC’s Tiny Happy People. We have also worked on the Trust’s ‘World of Stories’ programme, supporting schools in building positive relationships with their local library and building a culture of reading of pleasure in their school.
On 21 March 2024, Essex hosted the National Literacy Trust Primary School Conference at County Hall. If you would like to find out more, please take a look on the National Literacy website.
Supporting ReadEasy
The Read Easy Harlow & Chelmsford group affiliated in June 2022 and covers the Harlow and Chelmsford area, supporting reading skills with adults through one-to-one coaching in our libraries. We have worked with the Read Easy team to support their coaching sessions and have directed customers wanting to support their cause to their coaching programme. If you would like to know more about the Read Easy team, you can find their publicity material in both Chelmsford and Harlow libraries, or look at the Read Easy website.
Supporting Shannon Trust
The Shannon Trust believes nobody should be left out of learning. Their reading programme is available in all prisons across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They also work with partner organisations in the community, supporting people to learn to read. Essex Libraries has been working closely with the Shannon Trust, using their Turning Pages manuals to support adults wanting to improve their reading. We are also excited to announced that we have also been asked to trial the Shannon Trust’s new app with our customers. Working together ensures that the service we offer to those learning to read is of the highest quality and follows a programme that incentivises learning to read. Find out more by looking at the Shannon Trust website. If you'd like to volunteer to support adults reading please go to the Volunteer Essex site and sign up to be a Literacy volunteer.
Mark making
In west Essex we are trialling a new range of activities for young children to support their early writing skills. Brentwood, Ingatestone and Shenfield libraries now have equipment to support mark making for pre-school customers and their families. At specified times, toys such as shape sorters, sketch pads, crayons and mazes will be available to support the development of children’s fine motor skills. These early opportunities are very important in supporting young children’s development. If you would like to attend one of our sessions, take a look on our Events Page.
Bringing Stories to Life
Reading stories in libraries does not have to be a silent activity – in fact we would like to encourage talking, laughing and even singing with our young readers! In these sessions, run by our Community Connectors, children can learn how to create their own stories using a variety of prompts and props. Children will then finish the session with a story that is linked by topic to what they have been doing. These sessions are aimed at pre-school children.
Reading Buddies
We are very excited to be trialling Reading Buddies in Brentwood and Shenfield Libraries! Children will be able to borrow a Reading Buddy to take home, as well as an accompanying notebook. This will help encourage reading for pleasure and provide a space for children to talk about what they have been reading with friends and library staff. For more information, please speak to staff at Brentwood or Shenfield Library.
Phonics equipment
We understand that learning needs to be fun! So at a number of our libraries, you can now find a variety of phonics games that children can play. These can be found in our Everyone’s Literacy Areas. These games are for use in our library spaces and can help young children to be introduced to different sounds and recognise different letter shapes. Phonics games can currently be found in Brightlingsea, Danbury, Hockley, Rochford and West Clacton libraries.
Author visits
Meeting authors is an important step in encouraging literacy for children and adults alike. At Essex Library Service we offer a range of opportunities to meet authors. Check out our Events Page for the latest information on who we have visiting out libraries.
Sustainability Challenge
In 2023, we launched a new literacy challenge for teenagers called the Sustainability Challenge. The aim for this was not only to allow opportunities to develop reading and writing skills, but also teach our young people some valuable lessons in sustainability and climate change. Participants were asked to complete several challenges and in return received a certificate, digital badge and Love Essex merchandise.
Writing competitions
Over 2023, we launched a number of writing competitions for children and young people up to the age of 25 years. These included Spring and Summer Poetry competitions where we had approx. 500 entries across the county! Prizes were donated by our partners at Colchester Zoo, Hopefield Animal Farm, Barleylands, Essex Year of Numbers and Essex Police. Keep an eye on our website for any future competitions.
Summer Reading Challenge
Essex Libraries has continued to partner with the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge since its inception in 1999. This well-loved challenge asks children to read six texts over the summer holiday period. With each text participants can collect stickers and end the challenge with a medal and certificate. Each year we have seen an increase in participants and completers, and we are proud to continue working with this fantastic scheme.
Winter Reading Challenge
Essex Libraries are very proud of our Winter Reading Challenge, where we have created our own characters and activities to encourage reading and support raising literacy. As well as reading challenges, our Winter Reading Challenge includes activities including building, drawing and taking part in our library events. This challenge runs from December to February and has been increasing in popularity since it first began. If you have a young child in the family, make sure you ask your local library staff how you can be signed up to this fantastic challenge.
Reading Ahead Challenge
Reading Challenges aren’t just for the children of Essex! Using the Reading Agency’s Reading Ahead programme we have partnered with Essex’s Adult Community Learning (ACL) team, to encourage their learners to read for pleasure with Reading Ahead. This challenge encourages adults and young people over the age of 16 to read six texts for pleasure, resulting in a certificate of achievement once completed. This programme runs all through the year and can be started at a time to suit you. If you are interested in taking part, just speak to your local librarian.
World Book Night
World Book Night is a national event that takes place every year in the UK on 23 April. This event is funded by the Reading Agency and encourages people to read for pleasure through book gifting. This year, we will be partnering with Southend and Thurrock libraries to offer a range of free books to distribute to those that do not usually engage with reading, via our Community Connector team. If you lead a community group and would like us to work with you for World Book Night, please get in touch via our Enquiries team.