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Queen Camilla joins Cressida Cowell and Joseph Coelho to celebrate 50th Coronation primary school library
Queen Camilla opened the new library of Moreland Primary School in north London, celebrating the first anniversary of the coronation and the 1,000th school to be transformed through the Libraries for Primaries campaign.
Her Majesty met with pupils and teachers at the school in Islington along with publishers and authors such as Cressida Cowell and Joseph Coelho on Tuesday (7th May), an event which also marked the 50th primary school library in London to be transformed since the coronation.
The Coronation Libraries Project celebrates the role The Queen has played in supporting literacy projects and encouraging children to read in the year since the coronation. Over the past year, the project has reinvigorated 50 primary school library spaces in UK communities with low levels of literacy.
Bloomberg supported 25 of these 50 libraries, including Moreland Primary School. The school’s new library – through funding from Bloomberg and Bloomberg volunteers – now has 300 brand new books as well as the Chase Coronation Collection, including the top 23 children’s books as voted for by UK primary school children in celebration of the 2023 Coronation.
Two teachers have also been trained to manage the library and deliver inspiring reading activities for the whole school, supported by two pupil librarians and reading ambassadors from every class.
Moreland Primary School’s library is the 1,000th to be transformed through Libraries for Primaries, a campaign co-founded by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and Penguin Random House (PRH).
To mark this milestone, Queen Camilla was joined by pupil ambassadors in the school library to enjoy a recital of “One Thousand Libraries” by Coelho, which the Waterstones children’s laureate penned exclusively for the occasion.
Her Majesty unveiled a commemorative Coronation Library plaque, met with headteacher Catherine Lawrence, and joined a roundtable meeting to discuss the future of the campaign and how all UK primary schools can have a dedicated library or library space by 2028.
The roundtable was chaired by Bloomberg News anchor Tom Mackenzie, with author ambassadors Cowell, Chris Smith and Jennifer Cross speaking alongside representatives from organisations such as Bloomberg, Foyle Foundation, Arts Council England, Penguin Books, Hachette UK, Sweet Cherry and Oxford University Press.
Queen Camilla then joined storyteller Alim Kamara, 10 reading ambassadors from the school and 20 pupil librarians taking part in an interactive telling of a story about perseverance. A recording of the session will be shared with all 1,000 Libraries for Primaries schools across the UK. The Queen then opened the school library and every child at the school also received a new book.
Lawrence said of her school’s royal visit: “We were honoured to receive Her Majesty Queen Camilla today to open our fantastic new library space and hear first-hand from pupils about their passion for reading.
“Access to books at home is limited for many of our children; this new library gives families the opportunity to share the joy of books together, regardless of their background or circumstance.”
Jonathan Douglas chief executive of NLT, added: “With the support of our incredible partners and authors, we are proud to have reinvigorated 1,000 primary school libraries in communities where low literacy and poverty are having the greatest impact on children’s lives. But our work is far from done. In the coming months, we will ramp up our efforts to galvanise cross-sector support to help us ensure that every primary school in the UK has a dedicated library by 2028.”
Tom Weldon, chief executive of PRH, which has donated 400,000 books as part of the project, said: “Opening the 1,000th Libraries for Primaries school library is an incredible milestone and testament to the power of different organisations, across different sectors, coming together.
“Creating a future generation of readers is vital for us as a publisher, and for society, too, because we know that reading can unlock young people’s futures.”
Co-founded by the National Literacy Trust and Penguin Books in 2021, the Libraries for Primaries campaign unites organisations to support primary school libraries, particularly in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities, where one in four primary schools doesn’t have a library.
