Library Resource Manager, Mel Ballard and Student Frankie Dawkins were on BBC Radio Essex breakfast show on Monday 20 May, talking about all things literacy related at the College.
The chat with breakfast presenter Sonia Watson was the perfect opportunity to showcase the many fantastic ideas and tools that the College uses to engage students and encourage reading. These included the Reading Challenge for new students, poetry and short story competitions, World book night giveaways and word of the week.
The latter caused some light hearted banter around using trending words on Tiktok such as ‘hurkle-durkle’.
The encouragement of reading new books extends beyond just students at the College. Staff too also have a Book teams chat where recommendations and reviews are posted to generate a buzz around reading.
One of the key points from Mel was to try and get people into the habit of sitting down to read regularly for pleasure and wellbeing.
‘If reading has been instilled at a young age, I believe the love of reading will always return.’
She was also joined by student and book enthusiast Frankie who helps create top tips for fellow students and has donated 30 of her own books to the library.
It was great to be chosen to feature alongside other education establishments on this topic and fantastic to hear the College's ideas shared to a wider audience.
To find out how hurkle-durkle was used in a sentence, listen to the interview on BBC Radio Essex breakfast