Are YOU brave enough to explore The Awful Upstairs, The Gruesome Ground Floor and The Spine-tingling Cellar? Dare you discover the secrets of Creepy House and meet some of the hair-raising residents?
Looking at the enthralling tales behind Creepy House, the visually stunning artwork and the fun poster that form this year's Summer Reading Challenge, I have to say that my answer to Swindon Libraries' sales pitch was yes, yes and where do I sign up!
National library usage figures are falling, but last year, Swindon's children read 12,364 books as part of the Reading Challenge. Indeed, children's library usage is rising, bucking the trend and providing a fantastic boost to literacy rates in our Town.
The Challenge is aimed at Primary School children, the early years where these literacy skills are all the more important. Our Primary Schools rightly place importance on reading, ploughing resources into their school libraries. Most memorable was Ruskin Junior School and their 'rainforest' library. I visited at break time and there were just as many children curled up among the shelves and leaves reading stories about jungle adventures as there were playing football in the playground.
Visiting North Swindon's schools, the heads are always bemoaning the long summer holidays and the extra work that has to be done in September to get children back in the swing of things. Encouraging children to read over the summer is a real help, building on the fantastic work teachers do during term time. With our 16 and 18 years olds nervously awaiting their exam results, we are reminded just how important it is to get the key literacy skills right early on as it sets you up for later life.
You can sign up for the Challenge at any Swindon library and it runs until the 7th September.
Yesterday saw really positive news on the economy which grew by 0.6% in the three months to June, up from 0.3% in the previous quarter. Crucially, every sector of the economy grew, showing that growth is taking root across the board and the recovery is now hitting everything from agriculture to construction. These figures are much better than forecast, showing that despite Labour talking down the economy, we are turning things round, we are generating growth.
Crucially, we are far outperforming our EU neighbours. Germany grew by just 0.1% and is forecast to grow just 0.3% in 2013. We have had double their whole year's growth in just 3 months. France, who are pursuing the very policies Labour suggest the UK should switch to, are experiencing economic collapse. Their economy is contracting and they have record unemployment. It shows that we took the right decisions, with record employment and now also clear growth.
