One of Europe’s most inclusive and innovative cultural celebrations, Bradford Literature Festival’s (BLF) 2025 Education Programme has been a resounding success, welcoming 31,695 children and young people across 65 immersive sessions over 13 days.
Free to all non-fee paying schools, this year’s expansive programme delivered curriculum-targeted content to 69 schools—including 41 primary, 28 secondary schools and 86 home educators and home-educated learners, cementing its role as one of the UK’s most impactful and accessible cultural education offerings.
BLF brought together 35 acclaimed authors, performers, poets, scientists, historians and directors to share their skills with the next generation through live shows, performances and interactive workshops. Speakers included cultural historian and commentator Saeed Khan, Bradford-born author Marcia Hutchinson, and writer, rapper and world record breaking beatboxer, Testament.
From exploring the cosmos with astronomer Dr Sheila Kanani and author Tom Kerss, to uncovering the secrets of Ancient Egypt with historian Jean Menzies and Egyptologist Campbell Price, primary students were immersed in hands-on, thought-provoking learning. Highlights included a joyful dive into poetry with poet and performer Kate Fox, and hip hop artist and freestyle rapper Jack Flash, and a look at heroic tales and Yorkshire inventors led by Catherine Barr, Irene Lofthouse, and Saeed Khan.
For secondary students, sessions on Shakespeare, the Gothic, and classic fiction were brought to life by theatre directors like Amy Leach and Alex Chisholm, and poets and performers such as Clare Shaw and Yvonne Battle- Felton. Important events about Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement introduced students to powerful voices including scholar Kehinde Andrews and poet Matt Abbott, and encouraged students to reflect WWII and the Holocaust, with guest speakers from Holocaust Centre North, including third-generation survivor Elissa Winston.
CEO and Artistic Director of Bradford Literature Festival, Syima Aslam, said: “The Education Programme is at the heart of everything we do at Bradford Literature Festival, and we’re incredibly proud to have reached so many young people this year with inspiring, accessible and creative sessions. From space exploration to Shakespeare, we aim to ignite curiosity, imagination and confidence in every child we engage with.”
This year BLF partnered with BBC 500 Words, the UK’s largest children’s story-writing competition, in collaboration with BBC Teach and The Reading Agency. The initiative encourages thousands of 5–11-year- olds submit original stories of up to 500 words. Judged anonymously by a panel of authors, the competition celebrates imagination and literacy across the country, and reinforces BLF’s belief in the power of culture, literature and education to change lives, broaden horizons and raise aspirations.
In addition to the in-person programme, BLF continues to extend its educational reach through the Digital Education Programme—a growing online library of free, high-quality lesson plans and video content for teachers, course leaders, and home educators. With resources for Key Stages 2- 4, the digital programme includes adaptable lessons on topics such as story writing, the language of Shakespeare, theatre production, slam poetry, and George Orwell’s 1984. Each lesson pack features curriculum-aligned plans, classroom activities, and exclusive video content featuring BLF speakers and artists—bringing the energy and expertise of the festival into classrooms across the country and beyond.
Teacher and educator testimonials for the Bradford Literature Festival 2025 Education Programme:
“It’s fantastic to have access to real authors that some children can aspire to. They would not have access to this otherwise”.
“BLF’s Education Programme is very important. There are great links between the sessions and the curriculum. Children enjoy having sessions delivered by a range of people from different cultures and backgrounds”.
“BLF welcomes our school every year and we leave inspired with new ideas for topics of interest for the rest of the year”.
“It’s very important that Home Educators can continue to attend BLF’s Education Programme and benefit from the expert speakers and be inspired to learn more”.