The new campaign from The Sun is offering two million free books for primary schools in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The campaign follows a successful Books for Schools campaign in Scotland by The Scottish Sun, which saw 700 primary schools sign up, and gave away over 42,000 books.
Partnering with HarperCollins – which offers hundreds of high-quality fiction and non-fiction books by award-winning authors and illustrators – primary schools will be able to claim a free pack of 106 books. Selected from the whole-school reading programme Collins Big Cat, there are books in the pack for every reading level, from reception to year six, with a mix of fantastic fiction and inspiring non-fiction.
The pack is worth over £600, and includes books from authors including Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo and Benjamin Zephaniah, plus downloadable teacher resources. Every pack will also contain David Walliams picture book, There’s a Snake in My School.
Tony Gallagher, editor of The Sun, said: “Evidence shows how important instilling a love of reading is from the earliest possible age. Reading has been proven to increase empathy in children, help relationships and mental wellbeing, and increase cognitive development.
Gavin Williamson MP, the Secretary of State for Education, said:“It’s fantastic to see The Sun’s Free Books for Schools programme being launched… We need all our children reading books for pleasure and this is a great way for them to start.”
Primary schools can register to start collecting tokens from November 2nd, until November 22nd. To do so, primary schools should visit: thesun.co.uk/booksforschools.
Over 20,000 primary schools will be eligible to take part. In return for 3,500 tokens, which can be collected in the paper between November 23rd and January 18th, primary schools will be rewarded with their free pack of 106 books. The tokens simply need to be posted no later than February 8th.