More than 1,000 children at 7 University of Brighton Academies Trust schools throughout Hastings are taking part in our ground-breaking loca
More than 1,000 children across 7 University of Brighton Academies Trust schools in Hastings are taking part in our ground-breaking local reading programme: LitUp Hastings. In collaboration with the National Literacy Trust (NLT), we chose to run our pilot programme in Hastings, as it is one of the areas of the UK with the lowest rate of literacy and scores highly on the UK government’s deprivation index. We wanted to focus on helping children whose learning and development was most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, who were in years 3 & 4 at the start of the project and, in 2024, are entering their final year of primary education.
Read the LitUp Hastings Year 1 & 2 Report
In November 2024, we released the findings of an evaluation of LitUp Hastings’ first two years. The report shows that LitUp is having a significant impact on the children, families and teachers involved. Qualitative feedback collected throughout the project revealed remarkable outcomes:
Over half (53.9%) of children who claimed they rarely or never read at the start of 2022, read at least weekly by the end of the school year
Two-thirds (65%) of children who lacked confidence in their reading abilities before LitUp now describe themselves as ‘very good’ or ‘good’ readers
At the end of year two, 79.1% of children said the author visits made them ‘want to read more’
Thanks to the family reading element of the programme, 100% of participating students read a book they’d never read before and 59% of parents said they are ‘more confident to support my child’s reading at home’
More than two-thirds of parents (68%) reported that their child now engages in more conversations about reading at home after participating in the programme
Read more!