College launches Valentine’s themed campaign to encourage students to ‘Love to Read’

The Newcastle College ‘Love to Read’ campaign will run between 14 – 16 February and during this period the College plans to give away hundreds of books to students for them to take home, enjoy at their leisure and either keep or pass on to a friend. There are a variety of genres up for grabs, from short, snappy quick reads to teen fiction and sporting themed books. The beautifully wrapped book parcels will be available for students to collect between 11:30am – 2pm on Valentine’s Day, from the College’s main reception on Knutton Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

The ‘Love to Read’ campaign was developed by Newcastle College staff and endorsed by senior management, to celebrate the fact that the College had recently been presented with a Gold Award from the literacy charity, The Reading Agency, to mark considerable increases in the number of students participating in the ‘Reading Ahead’ initiative during the academic year 2016/17. The Reading Agency scheme, Reading Ahead, was adopted by Newcastle College over five years ago and since its launch, the College has seen a significant increase in the number of students reading for pleasure.

Literacy initiative champion and Lecturer, Lorraine Myers from Newcastle College said: “We wanted to use this well-known, romantic themed calendar event to celebrate our love for literacy and to encourage as many students to read as possible. According to the Literacy Trust, England is the only country in the developed world where the generation approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest adults. As a college, we are committed to raising literacy standards and participation in reading amongst our students, both as part of our day-to-day curriculum delivery and also to encourage a love of reading for pleasure. We’ve worked closely with The Reading Agency for a number of years now and we were delighted to be presented with a Gold Award in recognition for the work we’ve been doing on the Reading Ahead scheme.”

Lorraine continued: “As many as 5.1 million adults of working age have a reading level comparable to that of an 11 year old, so campaigns such as ‘Love to Read’ are so important to our College. If the initiative helps to grab student attention, raise aspirations and reignite a passion for reading, then our objectives will have been met and we will be making a difference.”

In addition to the ‘Love to Read’ campaign, the College is also hosting a romantic literature week to coincide with Valentine’s Day, with a display in the library featuring novels and poems from the 19th, 20th and 21st century, a competition where students will be encouraged to write a romantic poem and a themed Valentine’s lunch break with love songs being aired in the Food Hall, where students will be reciting poetry.