National Literacy Trust
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Search complete. 24 mentions across 16 episodes found for "National Literacy Trust".
Oct 2, 2026
David HaymanGUEST
For sure, yeah.
David HaymanGUEST
And the National Literacy Trust, um, as well as Harper Collins and, and others have tracked this over the last 10 to 15 years, and I think really worryingly during that time we've seen a significant decline, both in the number of people reading, the frequency of reading, and the pleasure, uh, people get from reading.
David HaymanGUEST
That is unfortunately across society.
David HaymanGUEST
Um, it's particularly acute amongst different, uh, groups.
24 MINS LATER
David HaymanGUEST
...
David HaymanGUEST
Burnley were there last year, I think.
David HaymanGUEST
Um, so the Pre- Premier League have worked with the National Literacy Trust for I think it's 25 years now in running programs which bring young people together to celebrate the power of sport and also integrate reading into that, those sessions.
David HaymanGUEST
So it's a kind of combined sport reading moment, celebrating reading as the match day program.
Holly EverettHOST
But I think on a broader scale, there's also something for us to really dig into here about Like doing things for the love of them or doing things for our well-being like does that make it less impactful or less important? And what is the role of love when it comes to our well-being and when it comes to seeing the world differently and being humans in it? But just to kind of stick really briefly to start with with this idea of reading and the love of reading and how she's like the way she's presenting it makes it sound like reading is too important to just love it, as if loving something makes it less important.
Holly EverettHOST
But actually, I was looking at some stats from the Literacy Trust, who do an annual literacy survey of over 125,000 children and young people in the UK.
Holly EverettHOST
And actually, this year's survey found that more than one in three children and young people said they enjoy reading in their free time, and that stat is going up, which is really exciting.
Holly EverettHOST
A third of children and young people, or more than a third, enjoy reading in their free time.
Charlie HigsonHOST
And I have met his wife, Queen Camilla, many times.
Charlie HigsonHOST
She is a patron of the National Literacy Trust, a charity that I do a lot of work with.
Charlie HigsonHOST
And she has also been one of the judges on a short story writing competition for children that the BBC set up called 500 Words, which I think and I think it still is actually the largest writing competition in the world.
Charlie HigsonHOST
They've had over a million entries since it started.
Tom TolkienHOST
The argument is unfolding against a difficult background.
Tom TolkienHOST
The National Literacy Trust's 2026 survey found that 36.1% of 8 to 18-year-olds enjoyed reading in their free time, up from 32.7% in 2025.
Tom TolkienHOST
Daily reading also rose slightly from 18.7% to 20.3%.
Tom TolkienHOST
Those increases are welcome, but they're not a recovery to earlier levels.
Tom TolkienHOST
Leaving school libraries entirely to local priorities risks making access to books another area where disadvantage compounds itself.
Tom TolkienHOST
None of this proves that simply opening a library will make children read.
Tom TolkienHOST
Research reviewed by the National Literacy Trust associates strong school library provision and library use with benefits including reading for pleasure, literacy and learning, but libraries operate as part of a wider reading culture.
Tom TolkienHOST
The quality of the collection, the adults involved, the freedom to choose and the amount of genuine access all matter.
speaker_2HOST
Mm-hmm.
speaker_3HOST
The article lists Read for Good, the National Literacy Trust, Give a Book, Sky, the Trussell Trust, and Book Aid International.
speaker_2HOST
V- v- very targeted list.
speaker_3HOST
Yeah.
Doireann GarrihyHOST
Let's start, um, with the college scenario, right? How are young people at reading for pleasure around that age, do you think?
Holly FoleyGUEST
Okay, so I'm not gonna be the Grim Reaper here, but the National Literacy Trust from the UK, their recent research found that actually, uh, reading amongst young adolescents, that- that's lowest in about 20 years.
Holly FoleyGUEST
That was at the 2025 survey found.
Holly FoleyGUEST
Now, there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
DoreenHOST
The team at Amazon's Peterborough fulfillment center visited Paston Siding School to help inspire a love of reading among pupils and promote the importance of recycling.
DoreenHOST
The visit was part of the National Literacy Trust's Young Readers Program, an initiative that encourages children to develop their love of reading and gives them the opportunity to choose free books to take home.
DoreenHOST
During the visit, seven Amazon employees read with pupils, sharing stories and encouraging a love of books.
DoreenHOST
The visit and partnership with the National Literacy Trust forms part of Amazon's ongoing commitment to supporting literacy and education in the communities where it operates, giving children the opportunity to enjoy books while learning about different careers and backgrounds at Amazon.
DoreenHOST
As well as promoting reading, the Amazon team shared their knowledge of sustainability with the pupils by taking part in an activity where they made boats from recyclable materials.
DoreenHOST
Dawn.
Caroline SandersonHOST
In this National Year of Reading, the figures are deeply concerning.
Caroline SandersonHOST
More than a third of UK adults state that they've given up reading, uh, while the National Literacy Trust has reported shocking and dispiriting falls in children's reading, which last year was at its lowest level on record.
Caroline SandersonHOST
Happily, the latest 2026 research shows a modest rise in children's reading engagement, but levels remain low.
Caroline SandersonHOST
Now, obviously, this is worrying for writers, but some people have characterized the decline in reading as marking a much broader societal crisis with far-reaching implications.
Caroline SandersonHOST
... we welcome two eminently qualified guests.
Caroline SandersonHOST
Joanna Prior has had a long and distinguished career in publishing and is currently CEO of publisher Pan Macmillan.
Caroline SandersonHOST
She's also chair of the National Literacy Trust.
Caroline SandersonHOST
Satnam Sanghera is a journalist and author whose books span both fiction and nonfiction, and his most recent is Tonight The Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael.
James MarriottGUEST
I mean, the two stark statistics that you see quoted for the decline of literacy in the 21st century are the American Time Use Study, which studies how American adults are spending their leisure time, found a 40% decline in reading from the beginning of the 21st century to I think the early 2020s.
James MarriottGUEST
There's a similar study from the National Literacy Trust in Britain, which found that a third of British adults said that they were once regular readers and now no longer read for pleasure.
James MarriottGUEST
The other statistic that I always think is...
James MarriottGUEST
But that's the habit of reading, which is not necessarily the same as literacy.
Georgina GodwinHOST
Her Get Britain Reading campaign began after she saw the figures showing how sharply reading for pleasure among children had fallen.
Joanna Thomas-CoreGUEST
I, like many people, opened the news that day and saw, back in spring of last year, and saw this horrifying report from the National Literacy Trust that revealed that only 32% of children now read for pleasure.
Joanna Thomas-CoreGUEST
That was last year at least.
Joanna Thomas-CoreGUEST
And that was down from 68% in 2005.
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