Pupils at St. Michaels Junior Church School in Twerton have received a donation of best-selling books thanks to housing association Curo and Travis Perkins Managed Services.
St. Michaels Junior Church School Year 4 pupils with their new books | Photo © Curo
The school is one of several in the local area to receive the books, along with free tickets for the recent Bath Children’s Literature Festival.
The donation was provided through a joint Curo and Travis Perkins funding pot, which is available for local community projects and ideas.
Samantha Thomas, Business Support Lead at Curo said: “We’re more than happy to help schools in Bath to attend this fantastic festival.
“As an added gift we purchased new books for their libraries, and we hope this experience may even inspire them to become writers themselves one day.”
Martyn Piper, Account Manager at Travis Perkins Managed Services added: “We are very pleased to be able to support the Bath Children’s Literature Festival. I’m sure this event has inspired children to enjoy reading more in the future.”
More than £1,700 was used to allow pupils in Bath to access the festival, as well as providing brand new books for their libraries.
Some schools could not go to the festival due to the pandemic, so plans are being made for authors to visit them in person.
The donated books, including ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell, are all by authors who took part in the festival.
Hazel Plowman, Head of Creative Learning for Bath Festivals said: “We were delighted to receive a grant from the Curo/Travis Perkins Community Fund which enabled us to inspire even more children to read for pleasure as part of the Bath Children’s Literature Festival.
“Bringing schools to see Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell live on stage for free, and providing selections of new books for school libraries means giving more children the opportunity to share in the magic of seeing an author, and to continue it afterwards in school.
“Inspiring children and young people is a vital part of what we do at Bath Festivals and we are grateful to the community fund for supporting us to make it happen.”
