Her Royal Highness met beneficiaries and partners of the Hub at Stoke City Football Club’s bet365 stadium and met with 200 pupils from eight local schools to recognise their reading achievements and celebrate their favourite books. The event was also attended by top authors whose books are on the city’s Stoke 100 Reads and Stoke Reads On book lists, including Liz Pichon, Bali Rai, Andy Stanton and Kate Leake.
She also visited the Stoke-on-Trent library service’s Little Library Van and shared stories with a group of pupils. Finally she met key local partners and representatives from businesses who are championing literacy in Stoke-on-Trent at a reception event. At this event Secondary school teachers, who have taken part in the National Literacy Trust’s professional development training, shared their successes in improving literacy at their schools.
The Stoke-on-Trent Hub is one of the National Literacy Trust’s seven UK place-based initiatives bringing together local partners to tackle literacy issues in their community. Led by the National Literacy Trust and Stoke-on-Trent City Council in partnership with the City Learning Trust, the Stoke-on-Trent Hub is branded as Stoke Reads and encompasses a range of programmes and activities to promote reading and raise literacy levels.