LITERACY levels in parts of Swindon are some of the lowest in the country - but a lot is being done around the town to change this.

Seven wards across north and south Swindon like the Parks, Walcot and Penhill have been highlighted as areas which are in dire need of literacy skills improvement.

The National Literacy Trust’s Swindon Stories campaign was formed in 2018 in response to these shocking statistics.

It works in partnership with Swindon Borough Council and WHSmith to offer a variety of programmes and activities to promote reading and writing.

Trust patron HRH The Duchess of Cornwall visited Swindon in January to see the trust’s work first-hand, which included a storytelling session with schoolchildren in the North Swindon library and children in care at the Lyndhurst Centre receiving book tokens.

Swindon literacy hub manager Anish Harrison said: "Children going into reception from disadvantaged communities can be 19 months behind more affluent peers and that gap widens without support.

"Good literacy is important to your health and wellbeing - low literacy can be life-limiting. Reading for pleasure is one of the most important ways of improving your life chances.

"There are fantastic communities in Swindon that just need a bit of extra help. Schools have done a fantastic job bringing figures up but there is still work to be done.

"We offer programmes of support to help young children be ready for school and encourage simple language activities and home learning."

To mark the one-year anniversary of Swindon Stories, 20 school leaders and cultural organisations signed a pledge to make literacy a priority here.

Other initiatives are helping to foster a lifelong love of language in young people - for example, the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature is the only event of its kind in the country and has just finished its 12th year.

Its headline guest for 2019, award-winning author Annabel Pitcher, spoke to more than 600 pupils at the Wyvern Theatre and answered questions from the inquisitive youngsters.

A long queue of eager children lined up with books in hand to talk to the writer afterwards and get their copies signed.

Annabel said: “It’s so important to get children interested in reading and writing because those skills influence everything else that they do.

“If you have good literacy skills, you are better equipped for life, it’s essential.

“It’s a myth that children don’t read. I used to work as an English teacher and my book clubs were always well-attended with lots of literacy support available.

“If you let children read what they want and support their choices, there’s no reason why they can’t develop a love of literature and improve their literacy.

“This festival is an incredible event. I don’t get the chance to do talks as big as this one very often so it was lovely to be invited.”

Dorcan Academy librarian Kate Murphy organises the festival with invaluable help from a team of other learning resource centre managers from different schools and academies.

She said: “All the librarians will confirm that once you have had an author into a school, you cannot keep their books on the shelves because students want to read them, which can only be a good thing for literacy.

“What’s really important is that the authors that we invite along are not there just to promote a book. They all want to bring their creative knowledge to students and show them how to write.

“The creative writing workshops that authors do are fantastic. We are very lucky that so many great names want to be involved in our festival.

“This is the only festival in the country that we know of which is librarian-led and other schools are starting to get in contact asking how we achieve it.

“All the librarians and LRC managers are very proud of being involved. Despite all the hard work in the run up to it, the positive feedback from the students makes it worth it every time.”