Today, we are delighted to announce the delivery of 10,000 free resource packs to year 6 and year 7 students across the country in partnership with sustainable paper brand REY.
This forms part of our summer school offer to support pupils as they transition from primary to secondary school. REY paper is contributing 150,000 sheets of paper to the initiative.
Packs with a selection of activities, all the REY paper children need to create their own comic, colouring pencils and a Beano comic are being sent to schools in locations identified as having the strongest literacy need, including Stoke and Swindon.
Accompanying each pack is our summer writing challenge: Comics Rule!, teaching resources, where children are tasked to design their own comic. The creative writing activity aims to improve writing attitudes and boost literacy skills.
Schools can share pupils’ comic book designs on Twitter, tagging @Literacy_Trust and #summerwritingchallenge.
Alongside the donations, all teaching materials and activity packs such as the summer writing challenge will be available for families to download for free on the National Literacy Trust’s Words for Life website and signposted on the Oak National Academy website.
These are designed with students aged between 10 and 12 in mind.
Summertime initiatives can help vulnerable children, improve engagement with education and ease the transition of children going from primary to secondary education. Our recent writing research* showed a quarter (23%) of children who write in their free time at least once a month do so because it makes them feel happy or more confident. We know that writing has a direct link to wellbeing and there has perhaps never been a more important time to support the physical and mental health of our youngest generation. I can’t wait to see the comic book designs created by the children who receive the packs, whilst everyone is able to enjoy this fantastic activity online.
Jonathan Douglas CBE, Chief Executive of the National Literacy Trust
