NTU college-level Lecturer appointed Digital Literacy Champion for the National Literacy Trust
School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences college-level English and Academic Skills Lecturer Sue Parry, has recently been appointed as Digital Literacy Champion for the National Literacy Trust.
The National Literacy Trust work to improve the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the UK's poorest communities, where one in three people have literacy problems. We spoke to Sue Parry to find out a bit more about why she chose to get involved.
“I was researching ways of getting my brand-new GCSE English Language resit students engaged with learning online, which is when I landed on The National Literacy Trust website. It featured a range of activities and projects, and the advert for a Literacy Champion” she told us.
“I contacted them, advising them of the work I had done to support staff in the first lockdown including setting up a college-level staff book club and a staff online magazine, and from this they asked me to become a Champion for the Nottingham branch”.
“I have been able to join a diverse group of Champions who all vary in their approaches to promoting literacy development in the region. From parents who engage other parents at the school gates and share books with them, to a volunteer at a food bank who engages with families and shares books when distributing food parcels”, Sue went on to explain.
“Because of the contacts I have made through The National Literacy Trust, I discovered the Letters of Solidarity project competition being run by UNESCO, and I worked with my new college students to develop their own competition entries.”
“The project aimed to give young people a voice about their experiences of lockdown, encouraging them to write a letter about their feelings or offering a different perspective on the progress of the pandemic”, she went on to say.
“The students' work was truly inspirational, and all six students who entered have been successful in having their letters or extracts published in an anthology next year, thus preserving their work forever, and creating six new published authors as a result. I am thrilled for them.”