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Schools in London can now take part in the Books About Town "BookBench" project organised by the National Literacy Trust (NLT), which has this summer placed 50 benches that look like books around London to celebrate reading.
Thanks to funding from the London School Excellence fund, the NLT is offering up to 100 schools in the capital a bench to decorate and display in their local area. They will also receive two half-day training sessions on how to encourage children to read for pleasure, classroom resources, and online or face-to-face contact with authors.
Schools can apply now online but must pay a contribution fee of £350.
The NLT launched the BookBench project last November and the benches are based on famous children’s books including Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Walker Books) and J M Barrie’s Peter Pan (A Bed Book).
Cressida Cowell designed a bench based on How to Train a Dragon (HodderChildren’s Books) and Lauren Child’s bench is based on her Clarice Bean series, published by Orchard Books.
On 7th October, the benches will be auctioned at the Southbank Centre to raise funds for the NLT.
The NLT is also part of the coalition announced yesterday (8th August) to what it calls a "reading crisis" among British children.
The participating organisations, which also include Save the Children, the National Association of Head Teachers, Booktrust, Beanstalk, the PA, The Reading Agency, Teach First, I CAN, HarperCollins, Achievement for All and the Fair Education Alliance, have pledged to cooperate to encourage childhood literacy, working through schools, libraries and in the home.