International Literacy Day celebrations have taken place around the world annually to remind people of the importance of literacy.

Literacy is essential for proper social and individual human development. Basic literacy skills equip individuals to transform their lives by improving their overall standard of living, and in turn improve the standard of living for whole communities.

Despite steady progress made across the world, literacy challenges persist with at least 763 million young people and adults lacking basic literacy skills in 2020. The recent COVID-19 crisis and other crisis, such as climate change and conflicts, have been exacerbating the challenges.

At Washington Academy, we have a range of activities taking place to promote International Literacy Day. Firstly, students will be sharing their book recommendations for ‘The Reading Tree Challenge’.

Additionally, students also have the opportunity to participate in two writing competitions. Ghost Stories: A spooky creative writing challenge and the poetry competition: This is Me. Information about both of these competitions can also be found here: https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/competitions

As part of our whole-school literacy drive, all students will be reading for 5 minutes every lesson and repeated emphasis is placed on literacy within all subject areas. Random book tokens to obtain a book from our book vending machine will be awarded to selected students who showcase effort and improvements in their literacy. We believe these will have a positive results on student outcomes.