PRIMARY school pupils received a visit from a special library bus as part of a huge campaign to encourage reading.

St Andrew's Primary School, in Bulmer, was visited by the Essex Mobile Library's Outreach Bus as part of ongoing efforts to help children in the county discover a lifelong love of reading.

The visit was supported by the Essex Year of Reading campaign and is part of a new outreach library service for Essex schools.

The £1million campaign was created by the Essex Education Task Force to support children and young people whose education was affected by the pandemic and is funded by Essex County Council.

Under the campaign, every Essex pupil was given a free library card earlier this year to ensure they had access to reading materials and to help boost their reading levels.

The outreach bus took a wide range of books and activated pupils’ library cards so that they access everything the county’s libraries have to offer.

Unlike the school library service, which lends books to schools, the new outreach service lends the books directly to each child.

Books can be returned either to the outreach bus or to any library in Essex. 

Essex County Council education boss Tony Ball said: “Reading is a key skill that can unlock access to lots of other areas of education and opportunities for pupils, particularly as they grow.

“We have always been very clear with the Essex Year of Reading that every child would have the opportunity to get involved and be able to discover a lifelong love of reading.

“By working with the Essex Library Service and bringing reading materials to children who, for many different reasons, may not be able to visit a library outside of school, we are able to achieve that.” 

St Andrew's deputy headteacher Carol Everard added: “In rural areas such as ours, parents and children find it hard sometimes to access a library due to limited public transport.

“The mobile outreach library gives our children access to high-quality materials and helps to broaden their horizons. 

“In school we have a high focus on reading and books. The mobile library visit was a great addition to our current library”.