An innovative scheme to make books a common necessity at home is gathering momentum at St Martins 3-16 School.
After transforming the school’s library space over the summer holidays, English teacher, Lana Tomley, and Librarian, Laura Griffiths, created the concept of ‘Matilda of the Month.’
The idea is simple – students write down the name of a book they want onto a piece of paper, and post this into Miss Tomley’s ‘Book of Spells.’ On the last day of the month, a winner is chosen at random to receive a new book and a selection of reading goodies including a bookmark.
Lana says the school are constantly working to better their students’ aspirations: “We wanted to begin a scheme where students did not feel the need to exchange anything for books, we wanted to make books a common necessity at home. Students were not bringing their own books to reading time, and further research told us that many students were not asking for books for Christmas or birthdays.”
As a book lover, Lana said she wanted to change the attitude towards books in homes and inspire previous non-readers.
September’s winner was Hannah from Year 7 who was gifted six books in the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series.
October’s winner was Lily from Year 10 who asked for the sequels to young adult fiction ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.’
November’s winner is Oliver from Year 7. Oliver is passionate about war machinery and spends his lunchtimes leafing through war books in the school library.
He is the lucky winner of an encyclopaedia of war machinery, and Tony Robinson’s World War One guide.
A double award is planned for December, the season of giving!
Find out more about St Martins 3-16 School here: St Martins School
Notes for editors
The 3-18 Education Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) of primary and secondary schools across Shropshire, with a community of over 5,000 students.
For press enquiries, contact media@318education.co.uk.
