Novus colleagues attend Prison Reading Groups event to celebrate and recognise the importance of reading in prisons

At Novus we are committed to incorporating reading through all aspects of education and ensuring our learners can benefit from reading for pleasure. One of the key ways we do this is through our excellent partnership working with partners who are experts in their industry. 

Recently, we have been working with Prison Reading Groups to develop the Reading the Way initiative (reading groups for emergent readers) where we have rolled out the pilot at various prison sites. 

On the 14th June, we had the opportunity to celebrate this fantastic project at the Prison Reading Groups, Reading in Prison event at Mercer's Hall, London. 

The reading in prison event 

Stakeholders from all areas of prison education were invited to celebrate and recognise 25 years of reading support in prisons that the Prison Reading Groups has enabled. 

The day started with a moving and uplifting keynote speech from Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, where she explained the role that reading played in helping her cope during her experience of prison in Iran. 

Novus were represented in a panel discussion by Esther Kelly, Reading Strategy Lead for prison sites across Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, who explained the outcomes and impact of the Reading the Way pilots and how they are being rolled out across prisons. The Reading the Way groups allow those who lack confidence to see themselves as readers and helps them to feel confident in responding to texts and sharing their opinions about what they've read.

Sharing and discussing the importance of reading in prisons

Inspiring discussions were held throughout the day, focusing on the concepts of emergent reading, reading for pleasure and the role reading has in empowering prisoners whether this is through access to education, improving self-esteem or supporting their rehabilitation which were led by experts in the field and those with lived experience. 

Esther and Nicky Bates, reading specialist tutor at HMP Liverpool, were also able to promote the great work Novus colleagues have done over the past year, to support and develop reading through sharing case studies and good news stories with delegates throughout the day.

It was great to be part of such a positive and encouraging event which celebrated the hard work of Prison Reading Groups and Novus and gave our team some really good ideas for future projects to develop reading across our prisons. 

It has inspired me to see how we can further develop our reading groups

Our excellent partnership working with Prison Reading Groups has enabled us to provide learners with the Reading the Way groups, further engaging more and more learners in our reading provision. 

If you'd like to learn more or are interested in working with us contact us here.