Fabulous Feedback from Longwood Primary School
We recently received some feedback about our impact at Longwood Primary School, from Literacy Lead, Vanessa Ranch:
“This year at Longwood Primary School has been the best of my whole decade working here because of Give a Book. They have supported us in changing the lives of so many children and more importantly, creating a legacy of the love of reading. What began as an initial idea in the pipeline soon transformed into a magical reading space beyond belief that truly harbours the imagination of children. It allows them to become absorbed in the wonder of books in their own space, as well as giving them the opportunity to share these stories with their families.
We have 5-year-old children discussing women in science or the purpose of bindis in Asian culture due to the books that they have accessed, helping them to learn about the culture and society around them.
The library is also a special place for those children with additional needs, where a ‘sensory shelf’ helps them to access books that explore their senses.
Give a Book have been so incredibly generous with their support across our whole school. Years 3 and 4 took part in a thrilling illustrator workshop and were gifted with a stunning, hardback book that showed the evolution of the planet throughout time.
Our children were amazed that art could be an important job and this has really inspired many of them to challenge themselves and go further.
Our Years 5 and 6 children were also bestowed with a fascinating project. They had class discussion about their favourite genre followed by a democratic vote to chose the winning one. Soon afterwards, an un-named book of this genre arrived and they read it with eagerness to discover what would happen next. They used the story to plan their own blurb and design the front cover. This has been a fantastic opportunity to encourage children to not judge a book by the cover as well as recognise how many components work together to create a brilliant novel.
Our older children have also been developing their skills as performance readers as part of Picture Book Club. It has enhanced the social and emotional skills of our Year 5 pupils as well as allowing them to forge strong friendships that continue to coexist outside the classroom. The Year 2 pupils have developed better story language and regularly request books that they have previously had read to them as their love of reading grows.
No words can honestly do justice to the work that Give a Book does.
They allow children to escape to other worlds, grow in confidence and imagine what they could be. They are an amazing charity and Longwood Primary will be forever grateful to them and the reading legacy that they have allowed us to grow.”
This project was made possible by the generosity of the Marks Family Charitable Trust. https://www.marksfamilycharitabletrust.com/