Dingwall Primary gifted 2000 books thanks to kindness of bookshop and local parent
DINGWALL Primary School has been gifted over 2000 books thanks to the kindness of a second-hand bookshop and a local parent.
It all began back in August, when the county town’s primary school signed up to be part of the Scottish Book Trust’s Reading School scheme, which aims to build a positive culture of reading.
Part of the scheme involved setting up a pupil group to help raise the profile of reading in the school.
Explaining more, principal teacher Linda McGregor, said: “I had a wonderful group of 19 pupils who have called themselves the Book Busters.
“One of their first actions was to survey the rest of the school about their attitudes towards reading, and from this survey one of the biggest areas of dissatisfaction identified was the state of the school libraries – particularly the upper school library.”
With help from Mrs McGregor, the Book Busters then put an application together for a grant from the Scottish Book Trust, and were awarded £500 just before Christmas.
“We are in the process of using this to buy new books and soft furnishings (beanbags and cushions etc) for the library spaces,” said Mrs McGregor.
“However, the pupils realised that the money would not go far on new books, so we have been visiting the local charity shops looking for good quality second-hand books. The Puffin Pool shop in particular have been very generous.”
The teacher was then pointed in the direction of Better World Books, who donate and sell books, with a depot in Dunfermline.
“I explained our situation and they said that would let us have a pallet of approximately 2000 good quality second hand books for free, if we could arrange the shipping ourselves. All the courier companies proved too expensive, but a very kind parent, David Sutherland, came to the rescue and collected the pallet of books for us.
“The books arrived a few weeks ago and they are amazing! A fantastic quality mix of fiction and non-fiction for all stages within the school. We have only unpacked about half of them so far — 2000 books is A LOT of boxes — but the kids have been so excited to see them.
“I’ve heard so many wonderful book-related conversations as the boxes were being opened – kids recommending books to each other, and getting excited about new books by a favourite author.
“We have had a massive clear-out of our library and have put in the new books. It has also been fantastic that amongst the new books there are some dyslexia-friendly and dual-language books, which a few pupils have already borrowed to take home and share with their families.
“I am SO excited by it all and the difference this is going to make to the pupils here – both in terms of access to good quality reading materials, and in the development of more positive attitudes towards reading.”
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Dingwall Primary School headteacher, Sara MacAskill said: “There is such a buzz around the school on reading at the moment and this is a result of Mrs McGregor’s enthusiasm, positivity and dedication to improving reading at Dingwall Primary School.
“Mrs McGregor started with us just over a year ago and has brought to much passion for instilling a love of reading in children in our school, which is also positively impacting our attainment.”
