A North Yorkshire primary school has booked a new double decker ‘reading bus into its playground to help fuel pupils’ passion for books.
Families and teachers at Whitley & Eggborough Community Primary School ran a successful fundraising campaign to buy a 13m-long York Pullman bus and convert it into a brand-new home for all the school’s reading materials.
After receiving a £10,000 grant from developer the Banks Group earlier this year, the school was able to commission specialist York-based contractors Unconventional Design to start work on the project, with pupils putting forward their ideas on what they wanted to see on display.
And now, the reading bus has been welcomed by pupils, teachers and families in its new home at a special official opening event.
Alongside its primary use, the bus will also provide additional space for a range of the pupils’ learning and creative activities.
The driver’s seat and steering wheel have been left in place, while the school’s mascot Chas the Dragon, who embodies its core ‘Caring, Helping and Sharing’ beliefs, also features within the interior design.
It’s the second time that Banks has supported the school’s enthusiasm for reading, with a £2,000 grant helping it transform a little-used part of its courtyard into an outdoor reading area which now features colourful flooring, a story bench, picnic table, bean bag seating, an outdoor library shed and a sail shade.
Whitley & Eggborough Community Primary School has more than 230 pupils on its roll, from Reception to Year Six, and works to an ethos of ‘developing happy, confident and enthusiastic children who thrive in a stimulating and exciting environment’.
Diane Steward, school business manager at Whitley & Eggborough Community Primary School, says: “The reading bus offers our pupils so many different things, from a quiet place to spend time reading to extra space for their learning and creative activities, and having it parked on the playground means that it’ll be easily accessible at all times.
“Everyone here has an absolute passion for reading and having something so unusual at our school can only help to further nurture and encourage this love for books.
“Being able to tell the pupils that the reading bus will be arriving when they come back from their summer holidays was a lovely way to end the school year and seeing it arrive in our playground has made for a wonderful start to the new school year.
“Banks’ continuing support made the key difference towards turning our ambitions into reality and we’re hugely grateful for the generous contribution they made to this fantastic project.”
The Banks Group is the business behind plans for the development of a landmark integrated extension to the west of Eggborough, which will deliver up to 1,500 new homes, enhanced local transport links, assisted living units, new areas of accessible public open space, other local services and a range of environmental benefits.
Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, adds: “This is an absolutely amazing project which links in perfectly with the current National Year for Reading and it will benefit generations of local children.
“We’ve been working with the local community around Eggborough for more than five years and have so far provided around £25,000 in grant funding to some fantastic local charities, groups and schools.”
