Double decker drives love of reading

A North Yorkshire primary school is getting pupils on board with reading after transforming a double decker bus into a new learning space.

Whitley & Eggborough Community Primary School has welcomed the 13-metre former York Pullman bus to its playground following a fundraising campaign led by families and teachers.

The project was supported by a £10,000 grant from County Durham-headquartered developer the Banks Group, enabling York-based Unconventional Design to convert the vehicle into a new home for the school’s reading materials.

Pupils helped shape the design by putting forward ideas for the interior, which retains the driver’s seat and steering wheel and features school mascot CHaS The Dragon.

Alongside encouraging reading, the bus will provide additional space for learning and creative activities for the school’s more than 230 pupils.

Diane Steward, school business manager at Whitley & Eggborough Community Primary School, said: “The reading bus offers our pupils so many different things, from a quiet place to spend time reading to extra space for their learning and creative activities, and having it parked on the playground means that it’ll be easily accessible at all times.

“Everyone here has an absolute passion for reading and having something so unusual at our school can only help to further nurture and encourage this love for books.

“Being able to tell the pupils that the reading bus will be arriving when they come back from their summer holidays was a lovely way to end the school year and seeing it arrive in our playground has made for a wonderful start to the new school year.

“Banks’ continuing support made the key difference towards turning our ambitions into reality and we’re hugely grateful for the generous contribution they made to this fantastic project.”

The grant follows previous support from Banks, which provided a £2000 grant to transform an underused courtyard into an outdoor reading area featuring a story bench, seating and outdoor library.

The Banks Group is behind proposals for an extension to the west of Eggborough, which could deliver up to 1500 homes alongside improved transport links, assisted living accommodation, public open space and other local facilities.

Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, added: “This is an absolutely amazing project which links in perfectly with the current National Year For Reading and it will benefit generations of local children.

“We’ve been working with the local community around Eggborough for more than five years and have so far provided around £25,000 in grant funding to some fantastic local charities, groups and schools.”

Want your business, product or service to be seen regionally and nationally? Bdaily helps you get your story in front of the right audience, every day. Find out how Bdaily can help →

Join more than 55,000 subscribers by signing up to our daily bulletin each morning here.