Book company hosts lunch for Grantham school readers
Book enthusiasts at two local schools were treated to lunch last month, to celebrate their reading programme with Grantham Book Services.
Fourteen children from Huntingtower Primary School and Isaac Newton School were invited to lunch at The Gingerbread, Trent Road, where they also got to test their knowledge in in a book related quiz and play games.
Since the volunteer reading programme was launched last year, nine colleagues from Grantham Book Services have been visiting the two schools every week, to encourage and help pupils with their reading.
Grantham Book Services volunteer reader Finn Hoggan has been volunteering at Isaac Newton school. He said: “I have to say that I don’t know who finds it more rewarding, me or the kids.
“It is important that we as parents and as a community make sure that our children have the best start to their education and lives as possible. They are after all, our future.”
Trish Footitt also volunteers and has really enjoyed the experience. She said: “My granddaughters are great readers and love books. When I heard about this scheme at work, I wanted to get involved and read with children who possibly don’t have this passion about books.
“It has been a brilliant experience for me.
“I have heard a boy and a girl read from year 2 at Huntingtower every Wednesday. Their reading has come on leaps and bounds since we started, becoming more fluent and discussing the storylines in depth and also relating the stories to their own personal experiences.”
A spokesman for Issac Newton Primary School said: “Grantham Book Services invited us to lunch to celebrate the past year of our reading programme. We had an amazing time. We even got to take books back to school.”
Throughout the 2016/2017 academic year, 64 colleagues from across Penguin Random House’s UK business took part in the programme, supporting 75 local children across eight primary schools near Penguin Random House UK’s six offices and warehouses.
All of the children who participated received a certificate and chose two books to keep, with extra copies donated to each school’s library. Find out more at www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/creative-responsibility/
