Northolt School Reopens Refurbished Library
PTA funded upgrade at Greenwood Primary is fulfilling Cressida Cowell's vision
Headteacher Karen Silvester opens the new library at Greenwood Primary
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A school in Northolt has completed a refurbishment of its library thanks to funds provided by the Parent and Teachers’ Association (PTA).
Headteacher Karen Silvester at Greenwood Primary opened the new facility when pupils returned to the school after lockdown.
The library was funded by the PTA after the need to refurbish and modernise the facility was recognised in 2019. The PTA wanted to invest in a large-scale project that would benefit all children at the school.
The aim is that current and future generations of pupils will enjoy the library for years to come. The need to provide a suitable library to aid the children’s education was heightened after the closure of the nearby Woodend Library meant that children in the area have had no access to free reading material for over a year.
Plans were hampered by Covid-19, but in the autumn of 2020, the PTA were able to get back into the library to order new stock, set up a computerised cataloguing system and add the final touches of painting and new furniture to give the library a fresh and modern look.
“We want all children to develop a love of reading and our new library, resourced with an array of new books and areas for children to relax and read, will support that,” Mrs Silvester said.
“Our children love spending time in the library, and they are all really excited to use our new refurbished one. They have had to wait a little while longer due to all the restrictions around covid, but we have finally got a library that we love.”
The school says that the project is helping fulfil Cressida Cowell’s vision for more school libraries across the United Kingdom. The Children’s Laureate, and author of the How to Train Your Dragon series of books co-wrote a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for £100million to be ring-fenced for building and refurbishing run-down libraries because millions of children are “missing out on opportunities to discover the life-changing magic of reading.”
The 2019 Great School Libraries report from its survey of more than 1,700 schools revealed that one in eight had no library at all, while a 2002 OECD study found it was a more telling predictor than a family’s socio-economic status.
The Sunday Times reported that unpublished government figures show that more than 200,000 pupils are set to enter secondary school this autumn without being able to read properly – a rise of 30,000 since last year.
In the letter, which Cowell co-authored with former laureates Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, and Michael Morpurgo, she writes, “I have visited primary schools across the country over my 20-year career as a children’s author/illustrator and it is heart-breaking to see just how unevenly this fundamental opportunity is distributed.
“So often the children who need books the most are in schools that cannot provide them with even an adequate school library, let alone a good one.”
Her letter called for the £100m to allow schools to construct new libraries, employ professional librarians, and buy new stock.
The laureates also highlight that £320m has been ringfenced to promote sport and physical education and that libraries are statutory in prisons but not schools.
Reports have found that social deprivation is another key indicator of library provision: schools with a higher proportion of children on free school meals were more than twice as likely not to have access to designated library space.
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April 15, 2021
