Children from Ashfield Park Primary School were delighted to choose £100 worth of free books from WHSmith in Ross-on-Wye on Wednesday, February 28th, 2018.

In honour of World Book Day on Thursday, March 1st, WHSmith offered £100 worth of books to local schools. Becci Smith and Nicky Preece, who both work at WHSmith in Ross, took it upon themselves to nominate Ashfield Park Primary School, as they have children at the school and were on the PTFA.

Mrs Champness, who runs the library, and is also a teaching assistant, brought her “trusted librarians” from Ashfield to choose the books from WHSmith.

The children had the huge task of choosing £100 worth of books for their classes, and with the 3-for-2 offer on kids books added on top, they came away with a whopping 27 non-fiction books!

Mrs Champness told the Ross Gazette: “I went round the teachers classes to ask what they wanted and we were given a shopping list of what each of the eight year groups are studying, which is 15 classes altogether. We had to choose books that were appropriate for different classes and their reading abilities.”

For example, year two requested books on plants and polar life to aid their studying, while year five wanted books on anything interesting!

The nursery class were chosen interactive books on dinosaurs and general knowledge, while year five were chosen books on space, and year three were chosen books about science and the body.

Mrs Champness said: “It’s an amazing opportunity for the school and we’re very grateful.”

Teaching assistant, Mrs Seaborn, who also helped choose the books, said: “We’ve got an amazing library, but we are short of things. You can tell which books the children love because they get tatty quickly. They’ll get so much enjoyment out of these.”

Mrs Seaborn added: “What’s really nice is that the children seem to understand other year groups’ reading limits and what is suitable for them.”