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‘Opening the boxes of books for us as teachers was like Christmas'
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Jessica Lees, Reading Lead at Bracebridge Infant and Nursey School in Lincoln, talks about the impact of the scheme at her school.
Lincolnshire is among the 10% most deprived areas in England.
Jessica said: “We have 17 languages in our school and lots of children are recipients of Pupil Premium (extra funding for disadvantaged pupils). We also have lots of parents who struggle to read or write themselves. They’re the sorts of challenges we’re facing.”
Jessica and her colleagues want every child to leave their school a fluent and enthusiastic reader – and having high-quality and diverse books is key to their mission. Jessica said: “When we introduced the books to the children, their eyes lit up! They loved that they were new, rather than old and scruffy.”
The books have inspired their teachers too. Jessica said: “Opening the boxes of books for us as teachers was like Christmas. We spent hours going through them. It’s easy for teachers to get stuck working with their favourite books: these books opened our eyes to what’s out there.”
The school is using the books to teach the children about diversity and inclusion, and ‘what you can achieve, even when you have hurdles to overcome’. Jessica said: “We want to fill children with ambition. The books are inspirational and aspirational. They’re making a real difference to our school.”
“We’ve spent the last couple of days totally revamping our library following the donation of books. The plan is to surprise the children after half term with a new library.” – Teacher
