VIAT event with Maidstone LitFest

The Trust was delighted to team up with Maidstone Literary Festival to host a major event at All Saints Church on 10 October, with Children’s Laureate 2022-2024 Joseph Coelho.

Joseph is a well-known, award-winning performance poet, playwright and children's author. His books include the critically acclaimed Luna Loves... series, If All The World Were, and the CLiPPA-shortlisted collection of poems, Overheard in a Tower Block. He spoke at two sessions, attended by around 500 primary and secondary pupils/students, about his life and journey as an author. He also performed some of his work. Both events were fantastic and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Additionally, six of our nine schools were lucky enough to receive a free author visit as part of the Literary Festival, after registering their interest. Our primary schools at Aylesford, East Borough and Leybourne Chase all had visits from KS1 or KS2 authors, while Invicta, SST and Lenham all hosted authors who gave talks to KS3 students.

With reading as one of the Trust priorities for the next year, these visits and events have been fantastic in helping us to be proactive and interactive in the way we engage our pupils and students.

We are hoping to work with Maidstone Literary Festival again in the future to continue this positive and inspiring approach to reading.