Inaugural literacy symposium inspires educators to get Salford reading

The inaugural Salford Literacy Symposium saw schoolteachers, librarians, booksellers, arts charities, media producers and representatives from the country’s major literacy organisations attend a full day of lectures, workshops and panels dedicated to exploring steps that the city’s literary network could take to help improve literacy across Salford.

Organised by the Northern School of Writing at Salford, the day explored a variety of themes, such as how educators are dealing with the attention spans of children being monetised by digital media companies, how the idea of encouraging our children to read and write to reclaim their attention span has become an act of political resistance but also how educators can embrace digital media as a pathway to reading.

The symposium was introduced by the University of Salford’s Vice-Chancellor Nic Beech and Jackie Kay CBE, celebrated author and Professor of Creative Writing.

In her moving speech, the former Salford Chancellor reflected on how her parents influenced her love of reading and moved some in the audience to tears with a rendition of her poem Dear Library.

Jackie told the audience: “I don’t know if you will all remember the first time you realised that you could read, whether it was in the classroom or before then. By reading, it gave you opportunities to be other possible selves, other people, that you could try out being.

“[For me], I really love the idea that, by reading, we live our lives alongside the books that we read and that they offer us up alternate ideas of our own identity and of our own self. It’s in books that we first come across the possibility of expanding ourselves. For people that don’t have the experience of being read to, or the ability to read, it’s a very different or limited kind of life that they lead.

“[That’s why] I’m really passionate about the idea about trying to make reading and writing a go-to experience for everybody, particularly in the time that we live in, where our attention is being shattered every which way. [With] different ways of reading coming in now and in the future, we need to think about embracing the idea of what reading means and [questioning] if it means the same thing as it used to when we first started to read.”

The keynotes were delivered by award-winning author Jacqueline Crooks, Professor Helen Breadmore, Deputy Director for Research and Impact Lead at The University of Birmingham’s School of Education & Kelly Astley, Lecturer in Reading for Pleasure at The Open University.

In her speech, Jaqueline told the audience about how books had saved her as a girl growing up in poverty, as a carer and on the edges of gang life.

She said: “Imagination isn’t escapism. Literacy is revolutionary. It helps marginalised people envision futures they are told they cannot have.”

Kelly talked through methods that educators could introduce to encourage children to pursue reading for pleasure whilst Helen spoke about literacy interventions and provided examples on what methods have shown promise.

There were also representatives from 12 different literary organisations on hand at the symposium, including the National Literacy Trust, The Reader, The Northern Fiction Alliance and The Tutor Trust that educators could network with.

Following on from the event, The Northern School of Writing at Salford is now focusing on the creation of its Literacy Research and Practice Network and is looking to host a second literacy symposium next year.