A bright red double decker ‘reading bus’ is set to make a permanent stop at a North Yorkshire primary school after a community fundraising drive hit a key milestone.
Families and teachers at Whitley & Eggborough Community Primary School have been raising money to buy the 13m-long York Pullman bus and convert it into a brand-new home for all the school’s reading materials which will also provide additional space for pupils’ learning and creative activities.
And now, after receiving a £10,000 grant from developer the Banks Group, the school has been able to commission specialist York-based contractors Unconventional Design to start work on the project.
Discussions around the interior designs and features that the bus will include are now ongoing, with pupils putting forward their ideas on what they’d like to see on display.
The driver’s seat and steering wheel will be left in place, while the school’s mascot CHaS The Dragon, who embodies its core ‘Caring, Helping and Sharing’ beliefs, will also feature within it.
Conversion work will follow once everything’s been agreed, with the school hoping that the bus will be ready to drive onto its new home on their playground by September, in time for the start of the new academic year.
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 234 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: “Our pupils have an absolute passion for reading and everyone’s already really excited about having something so unusual at our school that’s specifically designed to help nurture and encourage this love for books.
“After converting our former library area into a new classroom, we were looking at a number of different options for where we kept all our books, and when we saw a similar reading bus project at another school, we immediately felt it would be a great option for us too.
“It will offer 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.
“Giving children the chance to see their ideas featuring in the design will make it extra special for them and we know that everyone’s going to want to spend as much time onboard as they possibly can.
“The Banks Group’s continuing support for our school has made the key difference towards turning our ambitions into reality and we’re hugely grateful for the generous contribution they’ve 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 this year being the National Year For Reading and we’re as excited as everyone at the school is about seeing it moving forward.
“Generations of local children are going to benefit from this wonderful new creation and we’re very pleased to be able to help put the wheels on the bus in motion.”
“We’ve been working with the local community around Eggborough for more than five years and have so far provided more than £20,000 in grant funding to some fantastic local charities, groups and schools.
”We are hopeful that we’ll get a decision on our plans for an integrated extension to the west of Eggborough in the coming months, so we can deliver even more direct, long-term benefits to the local community while also helping North Yorkshire Council meet its housing targets.”
Anyone from a community close to a Banks Group project who is interested in applying for funding for a community project should contact the company via its website enquiry form (www.banksgroup.co.uk/contact-us/) to find out if their group or project is eligible.