Visits to primary schools and the first two years of senior school are exciting and fun for everyone involved, whether for a creative writing or Saxon, Celt or Viking day, teachers and pupils alike will be left buzzing and with a thirst for more.

The ability to read well is as necessary to life as oxygen, if a child cannot read well, they will never be able to fulfil the promise that life gave them at the moment of their birth.

Not being able to read as a child is a disaster, it forces children to live a half life, constantly developing strategies to hide their problem.

Adults have to shoulder the responsibility, be it teachers or parents.

One thing I am certain about is that a child that reads with a parent or grown up will develop better reading skills and therefore will live a better life.

In my opinion the ability to read well is the single most precious life skill a child can develop and therefore is the single most precious gift any adult can give a child.