Thousands of Island schoolchildren enjoyed visits from top children’s authors as part of the ever-expanding Isle of Wight Literary Festival Schools’ Programme.
More than 20 authors came to the Island for a 2-day programme that saw them visit virtually every school to deliver entertaining and informative sessions with students aged from eight to 18.
Every Island primary school welcomed authors for fun sessions while most of the high schools and colleges also ran workshops with the writers.
The authors included Anthony McGowan, whose novel Lark won the Carnegie Medal and who writes children’s, young adult and adult fiction.
Anthony visited Carisbrooke College, Medina College, Ryde Academy and Ryde School.
John Dougherty brought smiles to the faces of pupils at several primary schools with his poems, stories and songs while Dr Stuart Lawrence, brother of murdered Londoner Stephen Lawrence tackled serious subjects such as racism and inequality at a number of high schools and colleges.
Zahra Nabi, author of The Kingdom Over The Sea, and Annelise Gray, who writes the Circus Maximus series, were among the other big names visiting.
Another facet of the programme was the appearance of the Pilot Ollie character from the Let’s Go See independent children’s brand,
Let’s Go See is spearheading a nationwide literacy and learning movement and used the Schools Programme to launch its Educational Outreach Programme across 36 primary schools on the Isle of Wight – one of the UK’s most disadvantaged literacy areas, where one in three children leave school unable to read at age level.
Programme co-ordinator Dawn Haig-Thomas said:
“The IWLF Schools’ Programme has gone from strength to strength and this year has delivered leading authors to every single primary and nearly every secondary school on the Island. We are grateful for the generosity of our donors who make these visits free for every school.
“At present, we are experiencing the lowest levels of reading for pleasure nationwide. An author visit can often be the spark that ignites a life-long love of literature in a young person..
“We are now turning our attention to planning an 2026 Schools’ Programme, which will tie into the government’s National Year of Reading 2026.”
Brighstone CE Primary School Year 3 and 4 teacher Dyan Northard said:
“Author Philip Kavvadias really ignited the children’s imaginations as he talked them through his stories and asked for their opinions on everything from the best underwater transport for a villain, to the cutest futuristic pet – he promised to take on board the children’s ideas as he writes his next story series.”
