Author Cressida Cowell calls for library in every school

Image above: Cressida Cowell on BBC Breakfast

One in eight primary schools do not have a library or reading space

Children’s author Cressida Cowell has called on the new Education minister to ensure every school has access to a library.

Cressida, who wrote the popular book series How To Train Your Dragon, and has just appeared at the Chiswick Book Festival promoting her latest book Which Way to Anywhere? spoke of her shock when she found out that one in eight English primary schools did not have a library or designated reading space.

The problem is most acute in the most disadvantaged communities where the figure is twice that.

Libraries are not required legally in schools and so there is no ring-fenced budget to fund them. Many teachers use their own money to buy new books due to a lack of funding.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Cressida called on the new Education Minister Kit Malthouse to create ring-fenced funding for school library programmes.

'Reading for the joy of it is about giving children life chances'
Author Cressida Cowell, who is behind the 'How To Drain Your Dragon' series, is a former Children's Laureate. She had this advice for the new Education Secretary Kit Malthousehttps://t.co/oIJ1wrQFH7 pic.twitter.com/xYE9goChmi

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) September 7, 2022

Above: Tweet of Cressida’s interview on BBC Breakfast

“It’s about reading for the joy of it”

Speaking on BBC Breakfast Cressida, who lives in Hammersmith, said she would not have been aware of this if she had not had the priviledge of being Children’s Laureate:

“We’ve known this for 20 years, it is about reading for the joy of it – not the mechanics of reading – reading for the joy of it.

“How can a child whose parent can’t afford books and there isn’t a library in their primary school, how can they read for the joy of it?

“I wouldn’t know this if unless I’d been a laureate. One in eight primary schools don’t have a library and children on free school meals are twice as likely to be in a school that doesn’t have a library.

“It is vital we get libraries into those primary schools… The Times education commission just did a huge report into this, one of their key recommendations was a library in every school. But that needs to be ring-fenced money, because schools are doing their best, teachers are doing their best…”

If the Government does not focus on this now, a whole generation of children will grow up without the same life chances, she said.

“The schools I visit often have food banks attached. You need money. I ask for a third of the sport premium for school libraries. You know, this is so important it’s got to be focused on because otherwise a whole generation of children are going to grow up without the same life chances.

“This is about giving children life chances, reading for the joy of it gives every child the same chance and that’s what our children deserve.”

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