Bury St Edmunds school Hardwick Primary opens new library on World Book Day

There has been a buzz around reading at a primary school as it celebrated the opening of its new library on World Book Day.

Named the Beehive by pupils, the new library at Hardwick Primary School has been a 'significant' investment by the Bury St Edmunds school.

It was officially opened yesterday by Cllr Sarah Stamp, who had provided a grant that went towards the new books.

Head of school Zara Cowling said they were all 'very excited' to finally be able to open their new library on World Book Day.

She said: "It had been a long time in the planning and creating process and when we were designing our space we wanted to create a destination where children can regularly come to get totally engrossed into a book and transported into a world of creativity and imagination."

Now there are comfy sofas, a reading den and wooden stump stools, all of which have been a great hit with the children, said Mrs Cowling.

She said they wanted the library to be 'the buzz of excitement' in school, raising the profile of books and reading for pleasure among their children and wider community.

"Our aim in the very near future is to get some Year 5 and 6 junior librarians trained up in there so they can support the younger children in school to develop their love of reading and all children can run some book clubs and ‘storytime’ sessions with them," she added.

The school worked with the Norfolk Children’s Book Centre, which came and spent two days at the school restocking the library with an 'impressive' selection of current, exciting, bestsellers of children’s literature - fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry.

The project cost about £17,000 in total, which includes the grant money from Cllr Stamp.

Mrs Cowling said: "We were very lucky to receive a grant from our local councillor Sarah Stamp which we used to invest in the new books and were grateful that she gave up her time to officially open the library and read stories to the children."

Mrs Cowling described World Book Day as always an 'exciting and inspiring' day where children get to dress as their favourite book characters and immerse themselves in the joy of reading.

At Hardwick Primary School pupils and staff once again dressed to impress, she said, and also brought along a prop from their chosen book which was used in activities during the day.

See here for our World Book Day gallery.