Cressida Cowell reveals Life-changing Libraries impact

June 8th 2022

Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell today revealed the transformative impact her primary curriculum UK Life-changing Libraries initiative has had on the six primary schools taking part in the pilot. Schools have reported seeing an increase in a love of reading, motivation towards learning, well-being and feelings of self-worth amongst pupils.

Cressida announced the Life-changing Libraries initiative, delivered in partnership with BookTrust, in April 2021 to showcase the transformative impact a well-resourced primary school library space design has on a child’s opportunities in life, as well as the shocking inequality currently facing children across England. Whilst every prison has a statutory library, one in eight primary schools has no library space at all: a statistic that doubles in schools in disadvantaged communities. 

Over the course of a year, six very different primary schools across England – with at least 25% of pupils eligible for free school meals – were helped to develop a reading for pleasure culture, focused on the four pillars of a successful ‘gold standard’ school library – space, book provision, expertise, and whole-school and parent involvement. Schools in Manchester, London, Sheffield, The Wirral, Cambridgeshire and Darlington took part.

Cressida said: "This report shares the powerful stories of the ‘Life-changing Library’ schools, adding to the raft of evidence about the crucial role reading for pleasure and school libraries play in a child’s life chances. A great library positively affects an entire school ecosystem, encouraging teachers, parents, students, as well as the wider community.

This research has come at crucial time when schools are not only trying to close the learning gap created by the pandemic, but are also being affected by rising costs: every child deserves the educational, economic, health and mental health benefits a school library and reading for pleasure bring to their lives, and the chronic problem of inequality - left unsolved for too many years - is now a crisis. We must take action now."

Read more and download the full report on the BookTrust website.

How Life-changing libraries make a huge difference to children – watch the video.