We asked Lucy Chambers, school librarian for Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services , to write us a blog following the launch of a Breakfast Book Club at Columbia School. This book club is generously supported by Madderson London.
“I have been a school librarian for Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services for 12 years and run the libraries of four Tower Hamlets primary schools. Give A Book has helped me extend the range of books available in my schools, both within and beyond the library, over the past few years and I am very grateful for that. Books donated by Give A Book include collections of graphic novels for my libraries, donations to Breakfast Clubs, magazine subscriptions for classes (chosen by children), the printing costs of a self-published book of stories written by children ….and more. I see my role as developing reading for pleasure and information, creativity and imagination across the school. This is particularly important in socially deprived areas like Tower Hamlets, where many families do not own books. The donations from Give A Book make a huge difference.
Many thanks to Give A Book for kindly donating such a fantastic selection of books, from picture books to fiction and information books, to turn Columbia Primary School’s long-established daily Breakfast Club into a Breakfast Book Club. The Literacy Coordinator Vicky Wright and I were delighted to welcome visitors from Give A Book, including Sara Madderson from Madderson London, who are funding the Breakfast Book Club at Columbia. Children loved stamping the books with the school address and sticking the donor labels into the books, giving them a chance to be the first children to look at the new books.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Give a Book on this initiative! My co-founder Helen and I have always loved reading, and we credit much of our creative success to spending years with our noses buried in a book. We are delighted if our books can teach children to dream, to learn, to grow, or to to be inspired to write their own story in life.” Sara Madderson
“Over 30 children a day from 5 to 11-year-olds make use of the Breakfast Club, many from socially deprived families living in the estates around the school.
Learning Mentor Verna Grant, who runs Breakfast Book Club, tells me that reading at Breakfast Club is particularly popular with children from the many families who don’t own any books. They get the chance to start their school day with a nutritious breakfast and to read at the same time.
Nursery families also now love to share the books daily while delivering and collecting their children.”
To find out more about Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services teacher resource loans, projects to develop reading and writing and their innovative scheme of supplying part-time librarians for primary schools in and around Tower Hamlets, please see http://www.towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/
To find out more about Columbia Primary School, please see www.columbia.towerhamlets.sch.uk/
Thank you to Lucy Chambers for writing this wonderful blog.