This September, we gave five schools £1,000/€1,000 and a year's membership to the School Library Association to help them rebuild their libraries.

And the winners are...

Congratulations to the following schools, who started the new academic year with a very welcome boost to their reading-for-pleasure budgets:

Archbishop Temple Church of England High School, Lancashire - nominated by Lisa B.
Batley Girls' High School, West Yorkshire - nominated by Maleeha N.
Finn Valley College, Donegal - nominated by Martina G.
Hanslope Primary School, Milton Keynes - nominated by Emma P.
Star of the Sea RC Primary School, Tyne and Wear - nominated by Jill H.

Thank you to the thousands of parents, carers, teachers, librarians, PTAs and friends who voted for your local schools, and congratulations to the five lucky winners whose entries were picked, and who have each received a £100/€120 National Book Token.

#rebuildthelibrary

Schools everywhere are doing their best to help children catch up with the months of learning lost during the pandemic, and yet reading for pleasure – which has been shown time and time again to be the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – is falling off the agenda. A study by our friends Read for Good – a charity which raises money for books for schools and children in hospital by getting children reading for fun – found that 81% of schools didn’t have a separate budget for reading for pleasure, while almost three quarters of schools reported decimated library stocks due to unreturned books during lockdown or library resources being diverted elsewhere.

It's time to get serious about reading for pleasure, and start rebuilding our schools’ libraries.

Get pupils reading with Readathon and Track my Read!

Thousands of schools run Readathon because it's a proven, fun way to get pupils reading for pleasure. Money raised through Readathon supports Read for Good's hospital programme, bringing the magic of books and stories to children in hospitals across the UK. Track My Read® is Read for Good's brilliant new digital reading tracker, for use with or without a Readathon. It's completely FREE to use, so give it a go! For more reading resources go to readforgood.org and sign up to Read for Good's termly newsletter to find out about free author events, book giveaways and more!

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About National Book Tokens

National Book Tokens have inspired booklovers for more than 90 years, empowering readers to choose just the right books for them. National Book Tokens gift cards are accepted in hundreds of bookshops across the UK and Ireland, and online. Available to purchase in bookshops, supermarkets, or online – including personalised and e-Gift cards, and Bookily – there are designs for booklovers of all ages and for all occasions. National Book Tokens gift cards are produced on FSC-certified card, have an expiry of 8 years from last use, and expired cards can be replaced.

Find out how National Book Tokens can be used to reward, inspire and incentivise children and students.

Visit our learning pages

Previous winners

2021 – Ardfert Central National School, Co. Kerry, Ireland

"We are very grateful and excited to have won... Our new books will be of tremendous benefit to kickstart the new school year and will encourage and establish strong reading habits in our young pupils. They will instil in our pupils, a love of reading for life. Thank you so much."

2020 – Slade Primary School in Tonbridge, Kent

"We are thrilled and delighted to have been named as this year's winning school and are already very excited as to how we might use the prize funding to further develop a love of reading across our school. Our focus for this academic year is reading so the prize money really couldn't have come at a better time! On behalf of everyone here at Slade thank you so very much."

2019 – Haverfordwest High VC School in Haverfordwest, Wales

"Such wonderful news! We are delighted to have won National Book Tokens for our school library. Knowing we have supportive parents who took the time to nominate us is wonderful and reaffirms the work we do to encourage a love of reading amongst our pupils. We are very excited to purchase new books for the library. Thank you."

2018 – Holly Park Primary School in London, England

2017 – Killermont Primary School in Glasgow, Scotland

2016 – Camperdown Primary School in Dundee, Scotland

2015 – Stanley Road Primary School in Worcestershire, England

2014 – Milltimber School in Aberdeen, Scotland

Terms and Conditions

Prizes:
5 x £1,000/€1,000 of National Book Tokens gift cards for 5 nominated schools

5 x one-year annual membership of the School Library Association for 5 nominated schools

5 x £100/€120 National Book Tokens gift cards for the named entrants

No purchase necessary.
Opening Date: Tuesday 7th June 2022.
Closing date: 11:59pm, Friday 29th July 2022.
Only one entry per person will be accepted. Entrants may not win more than one prize, but multiple entrants may nominate the same school.
For the purposes of this prize draw a 'school' is defined as any public sector or independent primary, post-primary, middle or secondary school, special school, or pupil referral unit, in the UK or Republic of Ireland. Early Years settings, including private nurseries and preschools, and home educators, are not eligible to win.
The prizes are non-transferable and subject to availability, and there are no cash alternatives.
The Promoter reserves the right to amend the specification of the prize or offer an alternative prize. In exceptional circumstances, the Promoter reserves the right to foreclose the competition without notice.
The cost of one annual membership to the School Library Association (SLA) will be reimbursed to each winning school by Book Tokens Ltd. upon receipt of an invoice, which must be received within three months of the announcement of the winning schools. If a winning school is already a member of the SLA at the time the announcement is made, Book Tokens Ltd. will reimburse the school for the value of a year's membership upon receipt of an invoice within one month of the announcement.
The competition is open to UK and Republic of Ireland residents except employees of the Booksellers Association, Book Tokens Ltd. and Read for Good, their families, employees of participating bookshops, and anyone else connected with this promotion.
Entrants must be aged 16 or over.
Entrants agree to the Promoter using their details in post-competition publicity. Your details will not be used for any other purpose, or passed onto any third parties, unless specified. Winners’ details may be shared securely with a third-party in order to fulfil the dispatch of competition prizes.
We will contact winners by email. In the event of a winner not responding after 14 days, we reserve the right to allocate the prize to another winner, or foreclose the prize. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted.
We will contact the named entrant to confirm the name and address of the school to ensure it is correct.
The Promoter accepts no responsibility for entries that are incomplete, illegible, incorrect, corrupted or fail to reach the Promoter by the closing date for any reason. Automatically generated entries or entries via third parties are invalid and shall not be considered.
The Promoter’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
The Promoter will only use your email address and other personal information as outlined in our privacy policy.
Promoter: Book Tokens Ltd, 6 Bell Yard, London, WC2A 2JR.

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