This report builds on National Literacy Trust's previous research from the 2024 Annual Literacy Survey to investigate how children and young people felt about writing in early 2024. It includes findings on how many enjoyed writing and how often they wrote in their free time, what motivated them to write, and what they wrote. This report is based…

The value of school libraries is well-established, with reviews and studies worldwide highlighting the impact on children and young people's academic achievement and literacy outcomes. Yet, it is still not a statutory requirement for schools to have a school library or school library system. As such, there are no official figures as to the number…

Listening to children's experiences of writing during the first lockdown in spring 2020, it became clear that for many it had been a time of increased creativity, with children writing everything from songs and stories to scripts, and some even beginning their own novels. Another prominent theme in the research last summer was that having more…

Acknowledging the importance of yearly trend data, the Annual Literacy Survey was established in 2010, which tracks UK children and young people's reading and writing enjoyment, attitudes and behaviours year-on-year. This report outlines findings from the eighth Annual Literacy Survey relating to children and young people's reading. 49,049…

This study draws on the theoretical frameworks of genre theory and writing expertise to explore how educators manage and excel in writing for professional recognition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four educators from different disciplines in which participants discussed their experiences of preparing and writing for Senior…

This report explores the writing enjoyment, behaviours and attitudes of 8 to 11-year-olds in the UK in the 2017/18 academic year. It supports the launch of author and National Literacy Trust ambassador Cressida Cowell's Free Writing Friday initiative; a new campaign designed to encourage primary school children to write for pleasure. In this…

There is a persistent "gender gap" in boys' literacy in the United Kingdom. This article reports on one technology-based intervention that may aid teachers in supporting boys to develop creativity within their writing. Boys from a Year 3 class used Minecraft -- a sandbox computer game -- to create virtual worlds that might help them to…

This paper describes some of the key principles and practices of Teachers as Writers groups in the UK. It draws on participants' own accounts of the personal and pedagogic benefits of these voluntary teacher-led activities. It also presents a case-study of a teacher who used her experience of the process of writing in such a group to support…

Video games are a significant cultural and creative force, often involving a number of art forms, including narrative, design and audio composition. They have been the subject of a large-scale exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museums in London and Dundee, while the British Games Institute (BGI) was set up to support video game culture in…

Britain's Children's Laureate Scheme has now been running for 14 years. This article asks Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Browne, Michael Rosen and Julia Donaldson for their views on their own experience of taking up this post. It concludes with a discussion of the recurring issues raised by these Laureates…

This article explores how assemblage and affect theories can enable research into the formation of a collective working-class identity, inclusive of written, print, publication, and organizational literacies through the origins of the Federation of Worker Writer and Community Publishers, an organization that expanded its collectivity as new…

Students and teachers from different language backgrounds are at risk of becoming victims of conflicting trends and conventions when writing in English. This study compares conventions of English academic writing at several European universities with what is taught in English-speaking countries. Data were collected with questionnaires and by…

Although it has been argued that school libraries are important for supporting the reading engagement of pupils who receive free school meals, to date there has been little analysis of the extent to which use of school library spaces is related to these pupils' reading behaviors. We analyzed data from 6,264 children and young adults in the United…

The National Literacy Trust's Annual Literacy Survey has provided essential data on literacy behaviours, attitudes and enjoyment levels for children and young people aged 9 to 18 since 2005. With over 56,000 children and young people taking part this year alone, it is the largest study of its kind anywhere in the world. In 2019, the Trust…

The link between literacy and health has been evidenced quite well, with studies indicating that people who struggle with literacy are also more likely to have poor physical health. However, what we know about the relationship between mental wellbeing and literacy is much more meagre. There is some evidence to suggest that higher levels of mental…