Schools to get free books to boost literacy

Today children from around the world will be celebrating characters from their favourite books as part of World Book Day and the Premier League and its clubs will join in to help kids’ literacy levels.

The League will be giving away 2,000 book boxes to primary school teachers who sign up to the new literacy offer available on the Premier League Primary Stars website, plprimarystars.com.

The book boxes, which contain 15 different titles from authors such as Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson and Dan Freedman (see list below), have been created in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

Premier League Primary Stars is a new programme where the Premier League works with education specialists to create and develop free, curriculum-linked Key Stage 1 and 2 resources, which can be used for lessons or to supplement existing in-class delivery of PE, PSHE, literacy and numeracy.

The programme aims to develop skills and ambition both on and off the sports field with resources for girls and boys aged 5-11 years old.

The clubs who will help to deliver Premier League Primary Stars in their communities will also be helping kids to celebrate World Book Day.

Cressida Cowell, the author of the “How to Train your Dragon” series stressed the importance of literacy and reading for young children and their development both socially and psychologically.

“I am a National Literacy Trust ambassador and I have been working very closely with the Premier League on the development of the literacy element of the PL Primary Stars programme, so it makes me extremely proud to be a part of an initiative that will be giving away 30,000 free books to young people,” Cowell said.

Another person whose book features in the boxes is Frank Lampard, the former Premier League footballer and author of Frankie's Magic Football series.

"This is a great way of engaging young people in reading," Lampard said. "The book boxes give schools an array of titles for their lessons, so there’s something in there that everyone in the class can enjoy."

The free online literacy offer to schools who register on www.plprimarystars.com includes packs, resources, and lesson plans for teachers.

The Premier League has worked with the National Literacy Trust to develop the literacy element of the programme, after the successful collaboration between the two on the Premier League Reading Stars over the past 15 years.

Richard Scudamore, the Executive Chairman at the Premier League, has also signed the Vision for Literacy Business Pledge which sees businesses commit to helping improve literacy levels.

Each of the two thousand book boxes being given away will contain the following titles: