Stratford Literary Festival

Since 2008 the Stratford Literary Festival has been bringing you an exciting mixture of debate, ideas, celebrity author events, workshops and humour in spring and winter. We are also committed to promoting the benefits of reading and writing on education, literacy and well-being, and take authors and illustrators into schools to engage and excite children and young people to read and write creatively. We also run workshops and projects in schools, the community and in prisons teaching prisoners how to write bedtime stories for their children to encourage family links and discourage re-offending.

OUR CURRENT SCHOOLS PROJECT
With schools closed for six months since March 2020, and libraries inaccessible, many children have experienced an irreparable gap in their education at a critical point in their lives. Not least and perhaps most importantly, they have missed out on the benefits of reading and engaging with books which bring life-long benefits in terms of literacy, life-skills and well-being.

Already 1 in 11 children in the UK does not own a single book (National Literacy Trust 2018), and with household incomes stretched because of rising unemployment, this situation can only get worse as there are increasing demands on dwindling incomes. Schools too will see their funds stretch as they struggle to cover costs related to Covid, so engaging extra curricula activities to educate and stimulate young readers will simply not take place. Plus many authors are unwilling, for their own safety, to undertake schools visits for the time being.

Our Projects will fill this important gap by curating and delivering a Programme of events to primary schools throughout our region area. We will pre-record or stream live events with leading writers and illustrators which can be downloaded and brought right into the classroom for the children to enjoy. This not only re-ignites interest in keen readers but, because they feature real authors, will help to engage reluctant readers.

Events will be programmed to appeal to KS 1 and 2, and last no more than 35 mins each so they fit neatly into a school period. Author too have seen their incomes suffer because of Covid, so we will offer them remuneration in line with the Society of Author Guidelines.

To help ensure a lasting impact from the Project, the package will include a selection of books for the school library for each school that engages with the project, free of charge.

What your gift could provide

£10

Books for a school library

£100

A writer's time to record a bespoke event for schools and children to access in class or at home

£200

A writer's time to deliver an interactive event for a school class