Devon County Council

From David Hutchings, Exeter 382594, November 14, 2008

A MAJOR conference on reading will climax the Devon Gets Reading campaign next week.

Devon County Council launched Devon Gets Reading as part of the National Year of Reading.

A number of events have been staged throughout the year including last month's DEAR Day when thousands of pupils across Devon dropped everything and read for fun for 15 minutes.

Children and young people in more than 130 schools and children's centres took part.

Now a prestigious conference aimed at schools, teachers and everyone involved in encouraging people to read is being staged at Sandy Park in Exeter on Friday (Nov 21).

The keynote speaker is Debra Myhill, the Head of Exeter University's School of Education, and an international expert on reading.

She will be joined by author Mal Peet and a range of experts from Devon County Council specialising in Early Years, primary, adult and special education, libraries and English as an Additional Language.

The conference will be opened by Devon County Council's Chief Executive Phil Norrey.

Devon Gets Reading coordinator Roger Kirk said: "We are absolutely delighted that Debra Myhill has agreed to be our keynote speaker as she has an international reputation for her expertise in reading.

"We also intend to share what we have learnt throughout the year and highlight all the good practice there is.

"We also want to look forward to how we can continue to promote the enjoyment of reading after the national and local campaigns come to an end.

"We want each Learning Community in Devon and the Children's Centres, libraries and Adult Learning centres within each community to come up with a series of key action points to promote reading for enjoyment."

NOTE TO NEWS EDS: Here's the programme

10.00	Registration	and coffee
10.30	Session 1:	Introduction from Phil Norrey Chief Executive Devon County Council
10.40	Session 2:	Keynote speech from Debra Myhill with QA
11.40	Coffee
12.00	Session 3:	Short inputs from sectors within Devon highlighting good practice in promoting reading.
1.00	Lunch
2.00	Session 4:	Continue short inputs from two further speakers
2.45	Session 5:	Half an hour for each LLC area-based table to draw up key action points to take back to their area
3.15	Session 6:	Mal Peet  - Author , Carnegie Medal winner
4.00	Tea and close

For more details contact Roger Kirk at  rmkirk@onetel.net  or 01626 871076.

ends