Students help combat illiteracy alongside experts

Secondary school students are set join academics and experts at a global summit designed to tackle illiteracy.

Pupils from The Cherwell School, in Oxford, will take part in the 2025 World Literacy Summit alongside industry leaders such as Penguin Books and HarperCollins.

Oxfordshire is in the bottom 25% of English counties for KS1 and KS2 literacy rates, having previously been ranked the worst.

It is estimated more than half of children from lower-income households in the county struggle to read, the group behind the summit said.

Year 12 student Jasmine said she had to develop her reading and writing when she came to the UK from Luxembourg in 2015.

"I skipped a year so I went straight into year four and had to learn how to read and write in English and learn my phonics - it was difficult but I was able to get support," the 17-year-old said.

Cherwell has a buddy reading programme, which sees older students pair up with younger students and read together.

Florence, 16, said she had "always liked reading" and "wanted to help others by reading with them", while 12-year-old Luka said he now found reading " fun, relaxing and calming", in part due to the scheme.

Students taking part at the summit will fulfil various roles at the summit, including as discussion contributors and moderators.

Kiril, who is 17 and introducing a speaker at the event, said: "One thing that's really important when these big international events happen is to have the voice of young people.

"I feel really lucky and privileged to represent not just my school, my city and my background, but also my age group - which I think in the world of literacy is really important."

The four-day event is organised by the World Literacy Foundation, which was founded in 2011 by Andrew Kay after he witnessed his own son's literacy struggles.

"The communities in the UK with the lowest life expectancy also experience the highest rates of illiteracy," Mr Kay said.

He added that the economic impact of illiteracy "costs" the UK economy £81bn every year.

The summit is the largest event of its kind, and sees people from more than 85 countries descend on Oxford to take part until Wednesday.

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