A North Lanarkshire school are getting a helping hand from an author to inspire kids to have a love of reading and writing.
Scottish Book Trust has announced ten schools who will receive fully-funded author residencies this school year.
The residencies will also give professional writers the opportunity to build relationships with the school and work together on a creative project.
Newarthill Primary School was one of the lucky schools in Scotland judged a worthy recipient of a Live Literature Residency.
This was for their application detailing their idea about inspiring pupils in a local outdoor story-telling and writing project in the woodland area next to the school over this school year.
The school’s principal teacher Lindsay Davidson said: “The staff are delighted to have been awarded a Live Literature Author Residency by the Scottish Book Trust.
“We are excited that our pupils will have the fantastic opportunity of working alongside story-teller, Jane Mather, on our outdoor literacy project, using the local area to inspire them to create their own stories."
The residencies will run across the 2021-22 school year and finish by May.
The Walter Scott Giving Group has funded the Live Literature School Residencies Programme for six years, and the Mohn Westlake Foundation has funded the ASN School Residencies Programme for three years.
As well as an author residency, schools will receive a resources grant of £500.
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, added: “The Live Literature School Residencies Programme is incredibly important, as it allows authors to build relationships with a school over time, working together with pupils on a dedicated project.
“Many of these projects will work with the local community and will also build on the school’s COVID recovery plan, addressing issues such as pupil wellbeing; rebuilding reading and writing cultures and also lost transition time for P7/S1.
“We are grateful to our funders the Walter Scott Giving Group and the Mohn Westlake Foundation for making this programme available to all schools including ASN settings.”
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