Queen visits Bristol school on first solo engagement since Coronation
Queen Camilla has opened a new library - as part of the 'Coronation Libraries Project'
Last updated 18th May 2023
A school in Bristol have today welcomed a very special visitor - Her Majesty Queen Camilla - on her first solo engagement since the Coronation earlier this month.
The event at Shirehampton Primary School saw the Queen open a new library, the first in a series of 50 primaries to mark the event, thanks to the 'Coronation Libraries Project'.
It's the 500th library to be transformed as part of the Primary School Alliance Campaign, too, which is a unique cross-sector, multi-partnership collaboration that is addressing the issue of library provision in primary schools across the UK.
The project highlights the vital importance of reading
The Coronation Libraries Project was launched by the National Literacy Trust to celebrate Queen Camilla's role in supporting literacy projects, encouraging young people to embrace reading from a young age.
It's all help boost the importance of primary school libraries and ensure young people across the country can develop a lifelong love of reading.
Many of the communities in which the Coronation libraries have been launched live in areas Her Majesty the Queen have visited as the Duchess of Cornwall and as Parton of the National Literacy Trust.
Each library or reading space will be refurbished, restocked and two members of staff will be trained to manage it and deliver a range of reading activities for the whole school.
The Queen joined the school’s pupils, as well as pupil librarians and school librarians from 10 other schools, for a “draw your dream library” workshop led by National Literacy Trust’s Lucy Starbuck Braidley and alongside How to Train Your Dragon author and illustrator and former Children’s Laureate, Cressida Cowell and the Noughts & Crosses series author, screen writer and former Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman.
Pupils from Year 4 met author Jasbinder Bilan and author and Primary School Library ambassador Chris Smith, before joining The Queen for a Coronation Draw-Along with author and illustrator Rob Biddulph.
Her Majesty also drew a cartoon version of her own Coronation crown - which you can check out below:
The visit ended with a party and a farewell song, chosen and sung by the pupils at Shirehampton Primary.
National Literacy Trust CEO, Jonathan Douglas said: “Astonishingly, 1 in 7 state primary schools does not have a library so we are very proud to be working with our partners and helping to enhance 1,000 reading spaces in primary schools across the UK.
"Shirehampton Primary School’s new library is the 500th and spaces like these will have a transformative effect on these schools’ reading for pleasure culture and a positive, life-long impact on the children. It has been so fantastic today, to celebrate the Coronation, with the launch of the new Coronation Libraries project and to mark such an important milestone for the Primary School Library Alliance.”
Former Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman said: “It should be the right of every child to have access to well-stocked, local and regularly replenished public and school libraries. I know from first-hand experience just how vital libraries are to children's hopes, aspirations and mental wellbeing. Libraries are places of inspiration and our children deserve nothing less.”
Headteacher at Shirehampton Primary School, Louisa Munton, said: “The library will harness their enthusiasm for reading even more, help them to continue to see the pleasure books bring, and enable them to secure better outcomes in reading. It will support our ongoing commitment to providing rich reading experiences for all of our children, some of whom have limited access to books outside of the school environment.”