‘These books allow the children to see themselves in the stories and to feel proud of their heritage and diversity.’ High praise for Bookmark's Your Story Corner packs

Bookmark offers reading support for children aged between five to nine through their volunteer-led programme as well as initiatives to promote an enjoyment of reading. Bookmark’s Your Story Corner packs offer schools the opportunity to develop a whole school reading culture and embed reading for pleasure into the lives of their pupils. This Nottingham school received over 200 books with their Your Story Corner delivery. 

Year 2 Teacher, Sarah, applied for the packs as the school is ‘located in area of deprivation within Nottingham so the amount and range of books at home can vary.’ The children start school with ‘varying levels of language understanding’ and many of the children begin school speaking English as an additional language. ‘Teachers work hard to increase the children’s vocabulary range by exposing pupils to a range of high-quality texts.’ For Key Stage 2 students in the East Midlands, scores for reading, writing and maths have decreased by 6% since before the pandemic1.  

Bookmark’s donation helps schools with the cost of living crisis, 64% of parents said the amount of money they spend on books for their child has decreased and 51% stated books are simply too expensive2. Sarah said ‘families across the school will be finding it challenging.’ Almost one in five children in England aged five to eight don’t have a book of their own at home3 . The Your Story Corner packs ‘will allow us to potentially spend the [remaining money from the school’s English budget] on buying books for the children to take home and share with their families.’ 

Buying into the government’s validated phonics schemes ‘takes a big cut’ out of many schools ‘English budget’. Sarah says these schemes have been useful in helping children learn the skill of decoding ‘but we also want to inspire them with incredible books’ which hasn’t been possible due to the lack of remaining budget. ‘It’s been amazing to have this new influx of beautiful books that we can share with the children and take them on wonderful journeys with inspiring characters.’ 

Many schools are finding their libraries and book collections to be outdated. Due to budget cuts and lack of resources, it’s increasingly difficult for schools to find the funding to buy books that represent their pupils. Sarah says in her classroom, ‘60% of the books had animals as the main characters, a further 30% had a white main character and only 10% were non-white children as the main character.’ Of the books received in Bookmark’s Your Story Corner packs, Sarah said:  

‘I was absolutely amazed at the books that arrived. I was particularly excited because in Nottingham, we have a really rich, diverse community, with lots of EAL children at our school and we really want to celebrate their culture. These books allow the children to see themselves in the stories and to feel proud of their heritage and diversity.’ 

‘I must say, the children and the staff were genuinely giddy with excitement when they saw the books, it was incredible.’ The children were given the books during a whole school assembly with each class receiving them in gift bags. The student librarians took them back to their classrooms where they had the chance to explore them. ‘They were so, so thrilled to receive their gifts from Bookmark.’ The children were overheard talking about the Your Story Corner packs with one child saying, ‘I'm excited that the book will take me to another universe’. 

An example display of the Your Story Corner packs at a Bookmark partner school

Sarah said:

‘It’s amazing that these books have been able to go out into classrooms. In terms of [the] short term [benefit], it’s created a buzz about books, giving not only the children but also the staff a reminder of all the beautiful texts that are out there.’ 

We asked Sarah what her favourite part of the Your Story Corner packs was and she said:

‘Oh my goodness, I honestly was absolutely ecstatic when they arrived. I don’t know whether I can pick a favourite part! I was absolutely thrilled that there were so many diverse characters and so many books on Mental Health, wellbeing and resilience.’ 

Your Story Corner packs are distributed by area. Please keep an eye out for our updates to find out when your area has been selected.