Foyle Foundation and Libraries for Primaries unveil £1.8m partnership

Libraries for Primaries has unveiled a new £1.8m partnership with the Foyle Foundation, an independent trust that distributes grants to UK-based charities and schools.

Libraries for Primaries, co-founded by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and Penguin Books, aims to ensure that every primary school in the UK has a library or dedicated reading space by 2028. The Foyle Foundation now becomes the lead partner for the next phase of the initiative.

According to the Foyle Foundation and NLT, 300 primary schools across the UK will benefit from a new library or enhanced, dedicated reading space this year thanks to the new partnership. 

This follows news from January that the Foyle Foundation would make £23m worth of grants over the next two years as part of plans to complete its grant giving-programme and close in 2025.

Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the NLT, said: "There are currently 1,900 primary schools in the UK that don’t have a dedicated library, and this is negatively impacting 750,000 children in some of our most disadvantaged communities. We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with The Foyle Foundation, a supporter of school libraries since 2009, and now as a lead Libraries for Primaries partner; enabling us to scale up at speed through the next phase, and provide a library for every primary school that needs one.”

David Hall, chief executive of the Foyle Foundation, said: “Building on the more than 2,000 state schools that the Foyle Foundation has supported to date, we are delighted to partner and combine forces with the National Literacy Trust to fill a gap and support those most difficult to reach primary schools, which still do not have a school library.”

In November, the campaign called on the government to commit to match-fund private investment to create more primary school libraries.