Donation helps puts books on shelves at school
Rotarians at Tettenhall have donated a total of £3,000 to put a diverse range of books on the shelves of a new library at the Kings Church of England School.
Earlier this year Tettenhall Rotary Club donated £1,000 to buy books and the latest donation, totalling £2,000, was handed over by Rotary Club president Reverend Allen Roberts.
During the pandemic lockdown, the Club donated laptops to help children without computers to access online learning at home.
The school library was disbanded during the first lockdown with the room being used for an additional classroom to maintain year group bubbles.
During this time only a few books were accessible in an unused office and only to Years 7 and 8 in order to ensure things were Covid secure.
Once restrictions were lifted it became a priority for the school to open a proper library to all pupils with a variety of diverse books to reflect the school community and encourage reading among all of the pupils.,
Now a library has been created specifically designed to foster a love of reading among all of the pupils, including those without access to books at home.
Colin Garner, community service chairman for Tettenhall Rotary Club, said: "Helping to improve literacy is a priority for Rotary International so when we discovered that a school in the middle of our village had recognised a problem for disadvantaged pupils and those for whom English is a second language, we decided to help.
"In addition to our donation, we secured a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation."
Miss Joy Langley, Kings School interim principal, said: "We are so grateful to Tettenhall Rotary Club for their donation.
"This has had a tremendous impact on developing extra resources for our library.
"With the ability to buy books, in particular from authors of different cultures and heritage enables us to nurture the love of reading throughout the school."
Both pupils and Rachel Morgan-Jones, assistant principal, have been involved in choosing books to add to the shelves.
She said: "With the ability to buy more books, in particular from authors of different culture and heritage, will help nurture a love of reading throughout the schools.
"Not only will this improve their reading skills, leading to better examination results, but it will also enable them to discover characters, places and ideas that they would not have been able to access otherwise."
