LITFEST26
The Fitzharrys School Literary Festival will take place in the week beginning Monday 19th October 2026.
It will be a celebration of all things reading, to mark the National Year of Reading and to represent the fact that we are going all in! To find out more about this national initiative, visit: National Year of Reading 2026 | Go All In
What's on?
On Monday 19th October, we welcome travel writer and journalist Simon Parker, who will work with students in Years 11, 12 and 13.
On Tuesday 20th October, celebrated children’s writer Sophie Kirtley will run workshops with all of Year 7 focusing on reading and writing spooky stories, inspired by The Haunting of Fortune Farm. All of our new Year 7 students have received a copy of this novel to read over the summer, and can read along using our Fitzharrys School Audiobook (which is available by email request).
On Thursday 22nd October, Year 8 and Year 9 students will participate in workshops and talks from authors, storytellers, and illustrators, including guests from the Story Museum in Oxford, an online workshop run by Beano focusing on creating comics, and a visit from a local author, name still to be confirmed.
On Friday 23rd October, Academic and Poet Dr Francesca Brooks will join us from the University of Cork, working with Year 10 on reading and writing poetry, and talking to our sixth form about studying English at University.
Throughout the week, we hope will be working in partnership with Mostly Books in Abingdon to take students in receipt of the Pupil Premium to browse, and choose and purchase a book of their own.
In school, we will focus on celebrating the power of reading and we will be Going All In with lots of events at break and lunchtime and in lessons themselves. Students will be invited to participate in workshops, book readings, and competitions.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Finance
We are grateful to the Tower Poetry Foundation, and to Christ Church College, Oxford, for grants that we are able to put towards the cost of some of these exciting visits, reducing the price per student to just £5 to fund all these events for our students.
Payments will be collected via ParentMail, with a deadline of 1st October. We appreciate prompt payment from parents and carers, which will allow us to secure all these brilliant opportunities for our students.
Donate and support
Of course, the more funding we have, the more we are able to do: a £10 donation could pay for a book for a student, cover the cost of another child attending an event, or allow us to take another student to the book shop to choose and purchase something of their own to read.
If you would like to make a voluntary contribution to support the Literary Festival, we would be enormously grateful. You can do so by making:
- an additional donation via ParentMail, or
- a bank transfer to the following account, quoting ‘Literary Festival’ as the reference.
- Fitzharrys School
- Sort Code: 306753
- Account Number: 30069160
Sending a donation via bank transfer means that the school will receive the whole donation, avoiding the usual ParentMail admin fees that are charged to the school.
Books
Do you have good condition books for children and young adults that are in need of rehoming? Consider donating them to our school library or to our book swap rather than selling on Vinted or taking to a charity shop. We will welcome any and all books brought to reception.
Reading
In the last few months of the National Year of Reading, we would love to encourage you to Go All In yourselves. Reading makes an enormous difference to students academically, emotionally, and mentally (for more information about this, please visit the National Literacy Trust). It’s good for adults, too, for all the same reasons; and when young people see that reading is a habit cultivated by all of us, they are more likely to choose to read themselves. One of the best things we can do to support teenage literacy, therefore, is to make sure that as many role models as possible are making a habit of reading.
Please do not hesitate to contact Miss Hartley, Assistant Head: Curriculum & Ethos (chartley@fitzharrys.school) should you have any questions, wish to know more, or have any feedback.
