Give a Book Reading Initiative, at Wyke Regis School
The Marks Family Charitable Trust has been working in partnership with Give a Book for a number of years supporting a variety of school projects and library installations. The Trust was delighted to support the latest reading initiative at Wyke Regis to install accessible classroom library corners.
The Project at Wyke Regis
In April 2022, Give a Book were introduced to the headteacher at Wyke Regis school. This introduction was through the Chesil Reading Project, who are part of a wider initiative to enhance reading in the Weymouth and Portland areas. The headteacher outlined the need for a real reading space within the school, as there was only a makeshift library in the corridor and some small book corners in the classrooms. Due to the pandemic Year 2 children were behind in reading, mainly still reading picture books and not chapter books. What the school needed, she said, was current age-appropriate material and diverse books so all the children could access high quality texts. This would also help boost confidence around reading and – she added – ideally, they would like a new library space.
In September 2022, Give a Book began by sending in brand new books to Wyke Regis for each of the new Year 2 cohort to welcome them back to school. With the help of FG Library and Learning Services three mini-classroom libraries were created for each of the year 2 forms. These were installed just before the Christmas break and the teachers introduced the new books. This allowed the children to pick up, flick through and read each new title, discovering new authors and widening their reading range.
Photo credit: Give a Book
Testimonials
“Thank you so much, and for the masses of books that seem to arrive every day! We had the most wonderful moment in assembly on Friday where I wrapped up one of the parcels as a present, and the children helped me to unwrap your gift. There was nearly a book for every child to unpack, and they were so excited!”
Library books – November 2022
“I just wanted to send these scrummy pictures of the children using their reading space for the first time today. They were loving organising the books onto the shelves and the feedback was great! This was during golden time when the children had free choice of anything - and they spent their whole time in the reading space - winner I'd say! The little boy in the black T-shirt can't read (really struggles in lots of ways), but was so engaged, he wanted to read a book to his friends and he was making up the story as he pretended to read. This was such a lovely moment. We also received a box of the most beautiful books today with lots of links to wellbeing and mental health. These are wonderful.”
December 2022 – Library books
In January 2023 the Give a Book team visited Wyke Regis
“It was rewarding for us to see the classroom libraries and we took part in the class’s afternoon illustration activity. This gave us time to talk to the children about books and their new classroom libraries. The headteacher’s enthusiasm and love for books and reading has shone through during the whole process, making this a project that has been a joy to work on, on both sides.”
Give a Book’s relationship with Wyke Regis will continue with plans in place for more projects; including author visits and a creative book cover design project.