Restocking a Primary School Library

I’ve been missing in action from my blog for quite a while; I didn’t realise how long it had been actually until I saw the date on my last blog. Eek. Evidently, life has been life-ing in lots of lifelike life-consuming ways.

One of the huge updates from the last six months is that I’ve joined the school PTA (well actually we rebranded to be Friends Of…). I say ‘joined’ but more I think I was told I was part of it and then suddenly BAM! I am a charity trustee and it’s all very legal and official. Despite how serious that all is, it has been a brilliant and fun challenge and I’ve got to explore some of my skills that a combination of motherhood and freelance have long laid dormant. It feels good to be useful, helpful and doing something exciting, new and more often than not, downright weird. Sometimes I am sending emails, writing pitches for grants, filling in forms, and then sometimes I am trying to figure out how many hot dogs my slow cooker can cook at once (as it turns out, more than 150) or foraging in a graveyard for evergreen foliage.

I initially thought we’d be raising money for school trips, playground equipment and other fun things. But this is England in 2025, so we are raising money for books and equipment to support the SEND provision that the school finds itself supporting without any additional budget.

There’s lots I can say on those things, and probably will at a later date. But for now, I have recently learned that primary schools are not given a budget to provide a library to support children learning to read for pleasure. If there is anything I have learned in the last few years being involved in the world of SEND, and now with education, it is that it’s dangerous to assume positive initiatives are in place. They rarely are and you truly never know what’s going on until you know. My pessimism is at all-time high but so is my drive and determination to make positive change where I can.

So here I am, a passionate children’s book writer and editor and increasingly, an advocate, initially faced with the knowledge that schools not only do not have such a budget, but budget overall have been slashed. Decimated. To further destroy my previously worn rose-tinted glasses as I lived within my Glenda the good witch style bubble previous to learning these facts, I learned that the little library our school has, in the very heart and centre of the school and is well-used by many of the pupils, will be no longer as the Essex Library Service is being terminated at the end of the school year. So our school will have empty library shelves next year.

The library is a well-loved space, open for use by the pupils at all break times – either to sit and read quietly, or is used as a space for when they need to regulate themselves. It has become a crucial space in the school and for that reason alone (although there are others!) it is alarming that this space is in danger of being lost to the pupils.

The fact that schools have no budget for books outside of curriculum ones (and not much of a budget for in classroom ones either), and the benefits of reading for pleasure, and instilling such a habit at a young age is so invaluable – for the children's long-term success in education as well as for their mental health now and as they grow in the future; as the National Literacy Trust's research and reports have documented.

As a publishing professional, who has sat in Zeus-knows how many meetings extolling the virtues of the availability of books for young children being crucial for building a life-long love of reading. It’s an industry line that we all agree upon, all know is true; both from a care of future generations and economically from a publishers point of view. Life-long readers are life-long customers of the content publishers are producing and making money from, after all.

It seems crazy and not cohesive that this sentiment and approach isn’t followed through in our education system. Especially right now, in 2025, with the cost of everything spiralling, especially the cost of childcare in general, access to books within a school setting should always be deemed crucial, in my opinion, but seems the most critical in this current climate.

Along with the school and the rest of our Friends Of committee, we will be helping the school restock the library. I spent a lot of hours last week applying to Libraries for Primaries and Brilliant Box of Books, as well as researching for discount book wholesalers and similar to help us work within our budget and fundraising goals. We are lucky to have a team of dedicated parent volunteers who will dedicate their time and passion. So we have a plan, we just need to execute it.

I’ll document how things go on here, so do follow along on my journey as I learn how to restock a library … through a lot of trial and error plus a mountain-load of determination. I want to get a better sense from the school of what sorts of books make a good library for a primary school: a ratio of picture books, to chapter books to factual books. What are the most popular themes, how can we tie in to the topics they cover in the classroom, how can we ensure we are providing enough diversity in our library.

If you have any tips or know of anyone who could help us in our aim to restock the library, please let me know! All help is gratefully and enthusiastically accepted!