đź“° Adult Literacy News Summary

Literacy campaign launched in Isle of Wight primary schools

25-Nov-2025 - UK

Let’s Go See, an independent children’s brand based in the UK, delivered its Educational Outreach Programme to 36 primary schools on the Isle of Wight in October 2025 as part of a nationwide literacy and learning movement. The Isle of Wight has been identified as one of the UK’s most disadvantaged areas for literacy, with one in three children leaving school unable to read at age level.

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Hundreds of courses on offer

24-Nov-2025 - UK

York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority has commissioned 22 training providers to deliver learning as part of a ÂŁ10.8 million Adult Skills Fund. The programme offers adults aged 19 and over the skills to secure work, for further learning or for personal growth

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Reverse adult education cuts now, protesters tell MPs

23-Nov-2025 - UK

Around 400 adult learners and college lecturers descended on Parliament this week to demand their MPs seek a reversal of adult education funding cuts. As part of its Save Adult Education campaign, organisers at the University and College Union (UCU) arranged a mass lobby for lecturers and learners to speak to MPs about the impact of the government’s ongoing reductions to adult skills funding. They also urged MPs to protect courses and jobs at institutes for adult learning and provide the right to free English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses as part of a “social integration plan”.

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Keep Colchester Reading launches Christmas book giving appeal

23-Nov-2025 - UK

Free books will be delivered to families this Christmas as a community appeal returns to the city. Keep Colchester Reading was founded by councillor Lee Scordis in 2020 with the aim of encouraging more people to read over the festive season. Mr Scordis said in the last year a minimum of four books, including one non-fiction book, were delivered to 150 families across the city. The scheme was created to ensure no child or family goes without presents at Christmas and to increase literacy and promote a love of reading in society.

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Shropshire community groups receive funding boost from Co-op’s Local Community Fund

21-Nov-2025 - UK

Shropshire community groups are this week celebrating sharing a funding boost from Co-op’s Local Community Fund. Thirteen Shropshire causes share almost £25,000, including: Read Easy Shropshire Hills: £1,922 to help adults who struggle with reading by providing free, confidential, one-to-one coaching either face-to-face or online.

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More than half of UK novelists believe AI will replace their work

20-Nov-2025 - UK

A new study by the University of Cambridge found many authors’ work has already been used – without their permission – to train large language models. More than half of published novelists in the UK believe artificial intelligence could eventually replace their work entirely, according to a new report from the University of Cambridge. The study, conducted for the university’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, suggests widespread unease about the speed and scale of AI’s advance into the literary world.

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Writer in Wellies launches first Cumbria reading scheme

19-Nov-2025 - UK

A children's author from Cumbria has brought a nationally recognised reading mentorship initiative to the county for the first time. Helen Haraldsen, known as The Writer in Wellies, has been delivering The Children’s Literacy Charity’s Reader Leader programme in primary and secondary schools across Cumbria.

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Jessie Kelly-Baxter of NECC on North East's potential

18-Nov-2025 - UK

Jessie Kelly-Baxter, policy manager, North East Chamber of Commerce writes about unlocking potential. It is easy to talk about work experience in abstract terms: “skills development”, “employability” or “talent pipelines”. Research and engagement across the region highlight why this is so vital. Many young people face barriers to opportunity, whether due to family circumstances, geographic location or systemic disadvantage. Adult literacy and communication skills are particularly critical: at the Chamber, we conducted research through our Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) work to understand literacy beyond basic reading and writing, looking at competence in the workplace.

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How literacy can change a life

18-Nov-2025 - UK

Learning to read empowers people, reduces poverty and increases their job chances. Yet more than 700 miliion adults are illiterate, the majority of them women. We look at innovations to help adults learn how to read from flatpack classrooms in flood-prone regions of Bangladesh, to an app teaching tens of thousands in Somaliland. Plus how adults in the UK are improving their reading skills thanks to an army of volunteer teachers using a method developed in prison.

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Welsh sporting heroes helping children with dyslexia to read

16-Nov-2025 - UK

The careers of Welsh sporting heroes such as Jess Fishlock, Alun Wyn Jones and Gareth Bale are being used to help children with dyslexia to read. Because of Covid, pressure on parents and distractions such as electronic devices, author James Stafford was concerned less youngsters were reading, so wanted to bring the stars of Welsh sport to life to encourage them. His book Wonderful Welsh Sporting Heroes, and Welsh language version Arwyr Chwaraeon Cymru, does that with colourful illustrations, interesting facts and career highlights.

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