Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell MBE to open school library

The Cambridgeshire village school is one of six pilot primary schools selected to take part in Cressida Cowell’s flagship project as Waterstones Children’s Laureate, a new initiative designed to showcase the transformative impact a well-resourced primary school library has on a child’s opportunities in life, as well as the vast inequality currently facing children.

The ‘Life-changing Libraries’ project was launched by Cowell with a call on the Prime Minister to put primary school libraries at the heart of our long term response to the pandemic with a ringfenced, yearly investment of £100m.

Following building work and installation, Benwick’s state-of-the-art library is now ready and stocked with a specially curated book list of approximately 1000 titles.

Headteacher Clare Talbot said: “We are thrilled to be taking part in such an exciting project for our children and community, and looking forward to seeing that ‘wow’ moment when they see the library for the first time and their eyes light up.

“I want this experience to give our children a lifelong memory of our library as a bright, inviting and trusted place, and for the shelves and shelves of books to open their eyes to the vibrant world outside.”