St William of York Primary School

On a bright February morning in South East London, over 30 people gathered for the opening of the brand new library at St William of York Primary School in Forest Hill.

As the children waited patiently for the room to be unveiled, they were joined by representatives from the staff, governors, Parent Association (SWOYSA), ABC project partners, Lewisham Council, The Acorn Group, and ABC’s Chair of Trustees. Cutting the ribbon and the guest of honour was Alex Falase-Koya, a brilliant and celebrated local author who has seen huge success with his ‘Marv’ book series and as the co-author of the Marcus Rashford books.

The pupils were so excited and couldn’t believe that a room previously used as an ad-hoc intervention space had been turned into a woodland wonderland library complete with hundreds of books donated by the local community.

The ABC team worked with its project partners to make the dream of the library a reality. Special thanks goes to SWOYSA who fundraised for the project, Acorn in Forest Hill who collected donated books and Ginkgo Financial who purchased a selection of brand-new inclusive books for the children to enjoy.

Within minutes of entering the library - and while the adults chatted - every pupil had quietly selected a book completely unprompted and settled down on the comfy cushions to read it.

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What could illustrate the power of giving children access to books to read more perfectly than that?

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