Top author rewards prizewinning adult literacy work

Reading for pleasure brings many rewards, but students and staff at Highlands College in Jersey are all set for an extra-special treat. This is thanks to national charity The Reading Agency’s annual, nationwide Six Book Challenge scheme, which encourages less confident adult readers to develop a reading habit and improve their skills.

Highlands College entered and won a 2012 prize draw for colleges running the Six Book Challenge for their students. Their win entitled them to a visit from a top author, and The Reading Agency has now arranged for bestselling novelist Adele Parks to visit them on 17 June.

Adele, who is a champion for the Six Book Challenge, will meet Highlands College students who have participated in the Challenge, plus staff from the college’s Learning Resource Centre who have guided and encouraged their reading. She will also visit Jersey Public Library at 1330, where she will meet members of the public and give a talk about her work, her passion for reading and how it can change lives. (Please see ‘Notes to editors’ for public booking information for the library event.)

The Reading Agency's Six Book Challenge is designed to engage people with low literacy by encouraging them to develop a new reading habit at the same time as improving their skills. Taking part in the Six Book Challenge helps to give them greater access to employment and better life chances on release. More than 23,500 people registered for the scheme in 2012 through libraries, colleges, workplaces and prisons and 90% of survey respondents said that they were more confident about reading after taking part. Participants are invited to pick six reads and complete a reading diary in order to receive a certificate.

Sixty-five Highlands College students signed up for the Six Book Challenge in 2012. But this year the college has gone from strength to strength: it has already signed up over 100 students, who are taking courses as wide ranging as functional skills, building services and sports studies. 17 participants at the college have now completed the Challenge with another 20 nearing completion, due mainly to very positive co-operation between tutors and Learning Resources Centre staff. This mirrors ever-increasing Six Book Challenge interest and take-up within colleges across the UK: over 100 colleges are directly involved with the Challenge this year, weaving it into their course delivery.

Adele Parks, author of such bestselling titles as Whatever It Takes, About Last Night and Men I've Loved Before says: “I'm incredibly excited to be visiting Jersey and meeting more Six Book Challenge completers and other readers. Being a confident reader is so vital; reading provides entertainment, education, escapism and inspiration. What could be more important than having those tools at your finger tips?”

"The Reading Agency is delighted that Highlands College will be hosting Adele Parks as their prize. They use our Six Book Challenge scheme in the best way possible by encouraging tutors to integrate it into their courses and demonstrating to students that reading of all kinds is an essential and enjoyable part of all our lives,” comments Genevieve Clarke, adult literacy specialist at The Reading Agency.

Anita Eastwood, learning resources centre manager at Highlands College says: “Our Six Book Challenge participants are thrilled about this great opportunity, which will bring reading closer to them through the experience of listening to someone like Adele Parks, who is passionate about what they do and who will show them that everyone the same chance to better themselves through reading.

“Whilst running the Six Book Challenge I have been humbled by feedback from participants who have flourished and gained confidence in reading which has led to them confronting fears. For example, one female student said: ‘I did not read to my children before doing the Challenge but now I have the self-belief to do what used to be the unthinkable and I thoroughly enjoy reading time with them’. This, for me, summarizes what the challenge is all about.”

NB: The Reading Agency had arranged for author Andy McNab, Six Book Challenge ambassador for 2013, to speak at a special event at Highlands College in January, after they won the 2012 prize draw for colleges.  Unfortunately a snowfall, unusual for Jersey, prevented this taking place, so The Reading Agency is delighted and grateful that Adele Parks will be visiting the college instead.