đź“° Adult Literacy News Summary
Barrow town centre event hands out free books for adults
14-May-2026 - UK
Free books will be handed out as part of Dino Day in Barrow this weekend to help visitors rediscover the joys of reading. The annual town centre event is returning on Saturday, May 16, bringing a range of prehistoric fun for families to enjoy. As part of this, organisers Barrow Business Improvement District are working with the local library to promote the National Year of Reading, a government campaign to get adults back into reading.
Read moreHastings offers a blueprint for tackling the UK’s reading crisis
13-May-2026 - UK
A multi-year reading for pleasure programme called LitUp, developed by Bloomsbury Publishing and the National Literacy Trust in six schools in Hastings is transforming children’s attitudes towards reading. With 70% of participating pupils saying LitUp made them want to read more, the programme demonstrates a powerful early signal of what sustained, joined-up literacy work can achieve. Against a national backdrop of declining enjoyment and frequency of reading, LitUp pupils reported increased enjoyment of reading.
Read moreDecades after walking out of school, Salisbury man rewrites his story
12-May-2026 - UK
A Man from Salisbury who walked out of school aged 15 after being humiliated by a teacher has turned his life around decades later with the help of a literacy charity. Alan, now in his early 50s, left school with no qualifications after struggling in lessons and feeling unsupported. Although Alan built a successful career in construction and has worked for the same company since 1997, difficulties with reading continued to affect his confidence and opportunities. After seeing Read Easy featured on television, Alan contacted the Salisbury-based literacy charity when he began struggling with a work course. He was paired with volunteer reading coach Michelle Haskins, and the pair spent a year meeting twice a week at Five Rivers Leisure Centre. Now Alan is studying towards an NVQ, reading Quick Read books from Salisbury Library and proudly keeping up with the scrolling subtitles on morning television.
Read moreFareShare Midlands Celebrates I-Can Programme Impact
08-May-2026 - UK
FareShare Midlands is celebrating the powerful impact of its pioneering I-Can employability programme, delivered as part of the PURE (Partnership for Urban Employment and Recovery) initiative commissioned by Birmingham City Council. At its heart, I-Can has been about more than just finding work. By creating a warm, inclusive and supportive environment, the team has enabled individuals to grow in confidence, improve literacy and job readiness, gain hands-on experience in warehouse and kitchen settings, and connect with real employment opportunities. This tailored, person-centred approach has led to 98 people securing jobs, with a further 21 participants gaining employment within FareShare Midlands itsel
Read moreDo we absorb information better on paper, rather than screens? It depends on the screen
07-May-2026 - Australia
The Swedish government recently announced it was moving from the classroom use of digital devices back to physical books. It cited concerns over declining test scores and increasing screen time. Are these concerns well founded? And what does the science of reading say about the possible consequences of reading on digital devices versus books?
Read moreFinding the Meaning of a Word Can Be Its Own Reward
05-May-2026 - UK
You’re reading a book and come across a word you don’t know. You keep going, and a few lines later, it clicks. You realise what the word must mean. There’s a small, satisfying moment of clarity—an "aha" moment. Our research suggests that this pleasant feeling may be part of the mechanism that makes learning work. It would be impossible to learn all the words we know from direct instruction. Rather, one way we learn new words is through its context. We hear a new word in conversation, or encounter it in a sentence, and gradually infer its meaning
Read moreCumbrian MP praises online reading scheme for schools
01-May-2026 - UK
Josh MacAlister, the MP for Whitehaven and Workington, visited Distington Community School last week to see an online literacy charity's work in the field. The scheme, run by national literacy charity Chapter One, pairs children aged five to eight with corporate employees for 30-minute, one-on-one reading sessions once a week.
Read moreLibrary extended to Henley primary
29-Apr-2026 - UK
A charity in Henley has extended its digital library service to a primary school. ELibraries for Schools, which aims to give children better access to books through a digital library, has expanded its service to Year 5 and 6 pupils at Trinity Primary School, in Vicarage Road. The e-library operated by the charity is shared with nine pilot schools across the UK.
Read more"Relentless" focus on literacy undermines reading for pleasure, says report
28-Apr-2026 - UK
The “relentless” focus on measuring literacy progress in schools has “pushed reading for pleasure to the margins”, according to a new report. “Parents and schools both recognise that reading for pleasure matters, but their understandable focus on literacy skills is actively undermining it,” found the study, which analysed survey data on reading trends among UK children, drawing on data from HarperCollins, NielsenIQ and The Reading Agency
Read moreBolton adults learn to read with Read Easy support
27-Apr-2026 - UK
More people in Bolton have started being able to read thanks to the local branch of national organisation Read Easy. The charity works across the country, helping the 2.4 million adults nationally who cannot read or who struggle to read. In Bolton, there are around 20,000 adults with reading difficulties like this. The Bolton Read Easy group, set up last year, works with volunteers to train them to become reader coaches in two, three-hour modules.
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