Pupils buzzing about reading at Barrow festival 

Some 700 pupils from schools across Barrow borough, Ulverston and Millom attended the Buzzing About Reading Festival yesterday.

Children from Years Five, Six and Seven took park in workshops with their writer heroes at The Forum, in Barrow.  

The festival was organised as a social inclusion project by Furness Education Consortium, Barrow Primary Collaborative, and Furness Primary Collaborative. 

The event celebrated the importance of reading for pleasure and encouraged parents to support their children's reading. The festival told how children whose parents support their reading achieve noticeably higher grades at GCSE than those whose parents rarely read with them.  

Entertainer Gary Bridgens kicked off the fun by getting the pupils on stage for his interactive songs and storytelling. 

The nine to 12-year-olds then took part in workshops with Gill Jepson, the Barrow author of the Out of Time series and Guy the Grumpy Gargoyle, and Russ Brown, a teacher at Vickerstown Primary School whose books include Daisy the Donkey's First Fare and Poppy's Planet, a New York Times Bestseller.

The children also got to work with well-known children's authors Damian Harvey, who pens the Robo-Runners and History Heroes books, and poet and broadcaster Stewart Henderson whose books include Poetry Emotions and Who Left Grandad at the Chip Shop?   

Mr Brown's new book, The Mechanics of Mechanicsville, will be launched at The Forum on November 7. Excitingly, he is also working with illustrator Jamie Cosley on a comic strip story for Disney magazine.    

He explained how he wrote to Roald Dahl as a child to ask him how he got away with using made up words. The great children's writer responded was a paragraph from the book Matilda six months before it was published.

Mr Brown said: "It's a really important thing for children to recognise they are all capable of being readers and writers and they can see us as people just like them from Barrow. 

"Stories can be told in so many different ways and children tell the best stories. They often don't realise that they are influenced by their outside environment."    

Mrs Jepson said: "With all the multi-media available, books can get lost and look a bit old fashioned, but actually when you re-engage children with reading they enjoy books straight away."

Mr Harvey said it was lovely to meet readers such as Korben Bradshaw (see panel). The author said: "It's great to have someone take the time to contact you. 

"It's fantastic to be part of this event and get children excited about books and reading."     

Mr Henderson said: "It's been absolutely fantastic and it is really vital. I go into schools and I'm finding the hunger for reading is there if the children are encouraged. The outreach to parents is vital. They can be encouraged by a day like today and not be self conscious about reading." Linda Potts, who led a team of primary and secondary teachers and headteachers on the project, said they are delighted with the success of the first event and the involvement of parents.  

The festival will be followed up be events in schools and the community. 

Dr Potts said: "We believe that for the future success of young people in Barrow and Furness more widely, we all need to work together collaboratively to support young people with their learning. This is one example of how we can work."

Stephen Cairns, a Year Six teacher, at Askam Village School, said: "These sessions have been inspirational for the children to encourage them to read more."