The SLA Community Award recognises the organisations and initiatives which partner with schools to promote and develop a reading culture, and this year the prize went to Swindon Youth Festival of Literature, a collaborative project run by the librarians of secondary schools across Swindon. Kate Murphy, festival coordinator, tells us about her winning festival and how it has helped nurture a love of reading with their teenage students.

In today's digital age, where the attraction of screentime so often competes with the magic of books, fostering a love of reading for pleasure amongst our teenage students can sometimes feel like an uphill battle especially in our school libraries.

The Swindon Youth Festival of Literature which is now in its 16th year is a collaborative initiative led by the Librarians of the secondary schools  across Swindon and is an innovative way to engage our young people in reading, writing and creativity.

A year of planning brings about a week-long literary festival in November coordinated by Kate Murphy with a fabulous team of Librarians that make the events happen in each school.

This year the team were immensely proud to win the School Library Association Community Award in recognition of their work and the impact it has had on thousands of students across their community. 

The Festival was established by Fiona Hardcastle, the previous Librarian at Dorcan Academy, in November 2008. Its creation and funding came from the Swindon Ten group of schools, a group of five secondary and five primary schools all working together to improve the education of their students.

The Librarians of the secondary schools involved were invited to submit ideas on what they thought would help promote reading within their schools. It was unanimously decided that they wanted to invite authors into schools to encourage and promote reading, introducing new authors and broadening what the students were reading.

It was a great success and following a further bid to Swindon Ten, they continued into 2009 inviting the other six secondary schools in the town to participate, making it fully inclusive for all secondary school students.

Funding ceased following the 2010 Literature Festival with the demise of the Swindon Ten group. But, now having established a successful and popular festival in the town, organisers were reluctant to let it go, so a bid was made to SASH (Swindon Association of Secondary Headteachers), to continue the funding in 2011 and onwards; thankfully they said yes, with each school contributing financially.

At this point, they also introduced the primary event, where secondary schools hosted an author for their partner primaries, therefore including all the town’s secondary and primary student population.

16 years later SASH are still wonderfully supportive with 12 secondary schools and over 150,000 students involved with the festival in some way or another.

The 12 schools involved all contribute an agreed amount and for this, each Librarian hosts an author for the day, invites their partner primaries to their school for a KS2 author event, has a poet work with all of their Year 7’s, takes 50 students to the local theatre to see the headline act (transport paid for from the festival budget), runs 3 competitions (creative writing, illustration and poetry) and enters a team of bookworms into the Inter School Book Quiz.

Festival Coordinator Kate Murphy explained “With the support of a number of national and local sponsors including our local independent book shop Bert’s Books, the festival is able to offer certificates, book tokens and trophies to our winners of our competitions and Library Ambassador Award.

“Our competitions are also judged by participating authors and poets who are attending the festival which is very special. We also have a wonderful link to the author/illustrator Steve Antony who runs the Illustration workshop which each interschool winner of the illustration competition attends.

    

“All of our competition winners, their friends and families are invited to attend a celebration event, later in November with local dignitaries awarding the prizes. During this event we also present our Library Ambassadors awards where each Librarian has nominated a student who has contributed to the running of the LRC and helped with the SYFL in some way. It is a real ‘lump in the throat’ moment as many Librarians would agree that the contribution of student librarians is invaluable, making their recognition particularly significant”.

Kate continued “Of course, every event is free to attend for the students making the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature an inclusive event in every school. As Librarians, we are always so pleased and proud to have so many students involved in this life-enriching experience that many will never forget.

“To see young bookworms have the chance to come face-to-face with so many wonderful and diverse authors and performers over the years makes all the hard work worth it.

A librarian-led literature festival for students is a powerful tool for nurturing a love for reading and literature among the younger generation. By providing opportunities for engagement, learning, and creativity, these festivals can make a lasting impact on teenagers' lives”.

So, if you're a librarian passionate about literature and education, consider taking the plunge and organizing an inspiring and memorable literature festival for the students in your community. It's an investment in their future and a celebration of the magic of books and authors.

The 2023 Festival runs from 6th-10th November.  For more information click here Swindon Youth Festival of Literature.