Her Majesty The Queen visits The National Literacy Trust in Bradford to celebrate how we support literacy levels in the city through our reading and writing initiatives.
Hundreds of school children, volunteer Literacy Champions and members of the community were joined by National Literacy Trust Patron, Her Majesty The Queen, and local Bradford poets today [Thursday, 15th May] to celebrate our reading and writing for enjoyment programmes and initiatives in the Bradford community.
Over the past eleven years, The National Literacy Trust has been supporting the literacy skills of thousands of children in Bradford communities where patterns of intergenerational poverty and low literacy are impacting people’s lives. The charity’s writing programmes help young people to find their voice through poetry and discover a sense of civic pride. Travelling into the heart of the city’s communities, the Bradford Stories Bus helps to ignite young people’s interest in books and stories and Literacy Champions seek to improve access to books, model positive reading behaviours and support literacy conversations.
To date, we have worked with over 50,000 children, families and teachers and given out over 150,000 books to children in Bradford, many of whom didn’t own a single book.
At Fountains Church in Bradford, Her Majesty visited the Bradford Stories Bus, an American school bus converted into a travelling literacy event space to inspire children to read and write for pleasure. On board, The Queen met Dale Reynolds, the Bradford Stories Bus Driver, Yorkshire-based children’s author, Harry Heape and some of the National Literacy Trust’s local Literacy Champions and representatives from Morrisons Foundation who are funding a series of 20 events on the bus across Bradford with authors and illustrators, both national and local, who will share their story and encourage children to share their stories.
The Queen also attended a lunchtime reception for Literacy Champions, partners and funders to recognise their support and contribution to the National Literacy Trust’s work in Bradford. She also met young people from the West Yorkshire Young Poet Laureate programme, including Ayeshah Wardak and Max Withe, this year’s winners along with partners of the programme, Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, and Nick Barley, Director of the National Poetry Centre.
Her Majesty’s visit culminated in joining schoolchildren from across the city who took part in a poetry session led by Manager of the National Literacy Trust in Bradford, Imran Hafeez, alongside two other local poets: Nabeela Ahmed and Irene Lofthouse.
Earlier in the year, to celebrate Bradford 2025 City of Culture, the National Literacy Trust launched its ‘Share Your Story’ campaign, gathering the individual and family stories of thousands of young people from across the city; celebrating their heritage, identities and cultures and their sense of belonging in Bradford. The centre piece of the stories cloud will be The Shared Story, a poem created and performed by poets and young people which tells their collective story of the city.
Having low literacy levels risks social and economic exclusion, yet many children in the UK lack essential reading, writing, and oracy skills. Poor literacy is linked to health inequalities, higher crime rates, and reduced social mobility. Worryingly, reading and writing enjoyment among 8- to 18-year-olds has dropped to its lowest level since 2005. Tackling literacy gaps is crucial to ensuring every child can thrive in education, work, and society.
Among the pupils in Bradford schools where the charity works most intensively 22% are more likely to visit their local library and 17% are more likely to read for pleasure.
Jonathan Douglas CBE, Chief Executive of the National Literacy Trust, said,
"We're so delighted to welcome our Patron, Her Majesty Queen Camilla here today to meet members of our wonderful community and celebrate all the incredible work that takes place in Bradford. It is crucially important we continue to reach communities with the greatest need, so we can turn around the steep decline in children’s reading and writing for pleasure. The partnerships we have developed and the programmes and initiatives we deliver in Bradford are hugely effective in fulfilling this aim."
Jonathan continues,
"Against a backdrop of a national reduction in reading and writing for pleasure, we can see a notable shift in attitudes towards reading and writing among children and young people in Bradford, particularly in schools where we have worked intensively over the past several years to promote literacy. In these schools, pupils report higher levels of enjoyment in both reading and writing than their peers locally or nationally. We are extremely proud to be celebrating this achievement with Her Majesty.”
Imran Hafeez, Manager of the National Literacy Trust in Bradford, said,
“Over the last decade, we have defined and addressed the literacy needs of our city through working with a community of partners including schools, businesses, health, police, libraries, cultural venues, voluntary and faith organisations."
Imran continues,
"Bradford is a vibrant, diverse and young city and these partnerships have improved access to books and literacy experiences and unlocked the huge potential in our children and young people to start their own journeys of reading, writing and expression."
"It’s a testament to the community spirit which has enabled us to gift hundreds of thousands of books and work directly with over 50,000 children, young people and their parents. It was the Bradford community that came together to realise the dream of initiatives such as the Bradford Stories Bus and our flagship volunteering programme of Literacy Champions and what better way to celebrate this than sharing it with our Patron, Her Majesty Queen Camilla.”
David Scott, Chair of Morrisons Foundation, said,
“Raising literacy levels can improve life chances and help children and young people fulfil their potential. As Bradford celebrates City of Culture we’re proud to support the National Literacy Trust and the Bradford Stories Bus project in our home city.”
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said,
“West Yorkshire is bursting with inspiration and creativity, and we’re creating more opportunities for the next generation to thrive. Through our Young Poet Laureate programme, we’ve empowered hundreds of young people to unleash their potential and discover the joys of writing for pleasure. It was wonderful to showcase West Yorkshire’s creative talent to Her Majesty Queen Camilla during Bradford’s momentous year as UK City of Culture 2025.”
Bradford is one of the National Literacy Trust’s 20 literacy hubs where the charity supports children and young people throughout their time at school, working alongside teachers, libraries and the wider community in this mission. It works to ensure that every child discovers the benefits and opportunities that reading, writing and speaking bring.