School libraries face a chronic lack of investment, with the most disadvantaged communities most affected: 1 in 8 primary schools in England do not have a library, and this jumps to 1 in 4 schools with a higher proportion of children on free school meals. This means many children don’t have access to well-stocked libraries so many don’t get to experience the magic of reading that may well have made you a reader for life.

The LoveReading4Kids Funding for Schools Scheme was launched to redress this shortfall and schools can apply for up to £5000 of direct funding to fulfill and enhance their library offering and inspire a love of reading for pleasure. We have had over 650 schools apply thus far and, whilst we would love to help all these schools, we need to find the funds for these settings. As we sell more books and the LoveReading4Kids funding pot grows we will be able to help more and more schools.

LoveReading4Kids recently selected a school who submitted a compelling bid to the funding scheme, and is the first senior school to be awarded funding. The Hyndburn Academy in Blackburn received £1,000 to spend on books for their library to promote reading for pleasure across the school.

In the school’s application, Victoria Rush, Director of Business at the academy stated:

‘’Reading and oracy is a priority for The Hyndburn Academy. We are a school in an area of high deprivation and therefore we want to ensure we give all our students at The Hyndburn Academy the opportunity to read both for study and for pleasure. We have created a new library for students, but having additional funds to purchase some new books would be amazing.’’

Upon being awarded the funding, Lewis Ware, English teacher at The Hyndburn Academy, supported the students in selecting a wide variety of books. From the students’ gasps and excitement as they pulled books out of the boxes, they were definitely pleased with their choices.

Students selected a range of books for different ages and reading abilities. Many popular titles and authors were featured, including Michael Morpurgo, Heartstopper, Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates and David Walliams books.

LoveReading4Kids Content Manager, Charlotte Walker visited the very excited pupils this week to observe and enjoy the delivery of these books purchased by the funding. Charlotte said of her visit:

‘’The newly delivered boxes of books were placed in the middle of the new library when I arrived, and the children were excited to unpack them. They all dived in, a bit like Christmas morning; it was fun to watch. They were all really thrilled with the delivery. “

English teacher Lewis was delighted with the visit from LoveReading4Kids, and shared the morning with students from his English classes:

“We were delighted to welcome Charlotte to The Hyndburn Academy. Our library stock needed a refresh and so it is fantastic to be able to offer our students access to so many new and exciting books.

“When we were given the news of the funding, Anne-Marie – our school librarian – and I spoke to the pupils about any preferences they had for adding to the library catalogue. We were delighted to see their faces yesterday when Charlotte arrived for them to unbox the delivery!

“Thank you to LoveReading4Kids for their kind donation. The students are so eager to read our new stock and hopefully this will help to create a real buzz around school to encourage students to immerse themselves in their reading.’’

Our Funding for Schools Scheme enables schools to access books they otherwise may not be able to, helping to remove some of the barriers to learning and ensure young people can all enjoy quality, newly published fiction and non-fiction works.

The funds donated to The Hyndburn Academy enabled the school to purchase 138 books. These funds were raised from book sales at The Week Junior Book Festival last October, where LoveReading4Kids were the official bookseller. The Week Junior also kindly donated a year's subscription of their magazine to the school to further enhance their love of reading and support literacy.

The LoveReading4Kids Funding for Schools Scheme accepts applications from state funded schools in the UK.  Primaries, secondaries and early years’ settings are all eligible to apply. For more information, please visit https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/the-lovereading4kids-funding-for-schools-scheme

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