The National Literacy Trust’s Secondary Conference will take place on Monday 7th July in Central Birmingham. The theme for 2025 is Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools.

Through keynote presentations by education and policy experts and a range of evidence-based workshops, practitioners will have the opportunity to explore some of the significant issues facing secondary literacy.

Keynote speakers:

• Alice Deignan, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Education, University of Leeds.
• Kit de Waal, award-winning author, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence, University of Leicester.

Presentations and Workshops:

• Critical Literacy: Combatting influencer misinformation on social media with Ruth Page, Professor in Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham.
• Diversity and Representation in Comics with Bobby Joseph, UK Comics Laureate.
• What About the Boys? with Steven Camden, spoken-word artist and award-wining author, poet and playwright.
• Implementing Disciplinary Literacy: a trust-wide strategy.
• Developing a Tutor-Time Reading Programme.
• Supporting Late-Arriving EAL Learners.
• Developing a Place-Based Approach to Increasing Literacy Engagement.
• Critical Thinking, Influencers and Mental Health Education.
• STEAM as an Interdisciplinary Practice.

Cost: £150 per delegate

About National Literacy Trust: NLT is an independent literacy charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life. The charity runs literacy programmes, CPD training courses for teachers, and provides online resources and tools to its members. It also undertakes research into all aspects of literacy and campaigns to raise awareness of literacy issues.