Government cut funding for Booktrust

Today the news was announced that the Government are cutting the 100% of the funding for Booktrust, the organisation who run the Booked Up programme, which has been giving away a free book to all Year 7 students in the country.

When the sample set of books arrives each year and go on display, they're instantly a hit with our students; not just the Year 7s who will get them, but the upper years as well, who all want to borrow them straight away and are annoyed when we tell them they have to stay on display for longer. Then the order forms go out with the leaflets, and the excitement and buzz this creates is wonderful.  Suddenly a whole year group is talking about books, which ones they'll get, organising in groups of friends to get the whole collection between them.  And these aren't just throw away titles.  This year our three most popular titles were Invisible City by M.G. Harris, the first book of the Joshua Files, Fever Crumb by Philip Pullman, which you'll remember was nominated for the Carnegie medal this year, and Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur.  These aren't obscure titles from obscure authors, these are exactly the books that our students wanted to read.  The range is always superb, offering non-fiction, poetry, and picture books for those with serious literacy difficulties too.  There really is something for everyone, not even our most reluctant readers could avoid being enthusiastic about choosing their title.

From the day the order forms were collected in, the library was besieged by Year 7 students asking when their books were arriving.  And when they found out they weren't there yet, we were able to tell them about other titles that they might enjoy, based on their choice, and our loan figures took an immediate jump.  Then they were there, in big purple boxes, complete with stickers and bookmarks.  I didn't get to hand them out.  As soon as the students saw the boxes they begged to be allowed to take them to registration for distribution, and for a whole day, every single Year 7 student in the school walked around the campus with a book in their hand or in their pocket.  No one put them in their bags.

What the Government have failed to grasp is that a large proportion of these students do not own books.  Their parents don't own books.  For many of these students, reading and literacy are not valued at home.  These aren't the students whose parents will take them to the library.  Few of them will visit the school library outside of lessons because it just isn't part of their culture to do that.  But now they have a book.  And it's not one that they're being forced to read, it's one that they chose, and it's theirs to keep.  No overdue reminders, nobody waiting to take it back.  It's a gift.  When I handed them out to my form, a Year 7 group that contains a couple of students with serious literacy difficulties, one boy took his in both hands.

"You mean I get to keep it?" he said.

"Yes, it's yours.  A present."

"Wow.  No one's ever given me a book before."

Our school is not in a low income area.  Our proportion of students on free school meals is ridiculously low, average incomes are huge and there are still students, even here, who live in a world where they have never been given a book.  I hate to think what it's like in more disadvantaged areas.

Let's get the figures straight.  The schemes cost the Government £13m.  Quite a lot of money.  But this is used as a basis to raise sponsorship of over £56m.  So what the Government is doing is waving goodbye to over £43m of support for literacy that doesn't even come out of its own pocket.  And they decided to announce this just as the Christmas holidays began.  Well, Merry Christmas to you too, you [insert insults here].

Local councils are cutting library budgets.  Staff hours in our area have been cut by 40% and there are closures happening right across the country.  School budgets are being cut, and school libraries will be on the line as Headteachers are forced to make difficult decisions.  So at a time like this, when a fundamental aspect of every child's education, reading, is under threat, the Government cuts funding for schemes that we know make a difference.  I don't understand what they're aiming for.  An illiterate public?  An absolute division of the haves and the have nots?  And yet today they announce a consultation on tackling child poverty.  It's been widely accepted that the fastest, most effective and most sustainable way of reducing child poverty is through education, so what on earth are they trying to do?