Funding For School Libraries

The Children’s Laureate and top authors have called for school libraries to be protected!  Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Quentin Blake have all publicly supported Chris Riddell’s letter to the Education Secretary.  CBC Education couldn’t agree more!!!

The message we hear day in day out from our clients is that - ‘funding this year is the most challenging we have ever had to deal with’.  The government may believe that they are providing record funding for schools.  The fact remains however that schools are having to make impossible choices.  School libraries can be incredible places.  In this age of instant visual stimulation libraries offer something different.  The love of books can bring a calmness and inner excitement to a young person that other forms of art are less able to achieve.

The way funding for academies is currently prioritised mean that it’s only really possible to undertake condition improvement projects.  These are clearly important but so is education enrichment!  In our view the funding pendulum has swung too far towards ‘condition’ and needs to swing back to ‘education enrichment’.

Despite the funding pressures some of our clients are managing to develop library spaces.  We recently designed and project managed a new library for one of our clients in North Somerset.  The available budget was very tight but we managed to build an 84msq flexible space within the budget and to critical timescales.  Hopefully this will inspire the next generation of literary giants!

If you need any assistance with a library project, please contact Mark Brothwell on 01934 710 789 or mark@corporatebuildingconsultancy.com Mark will be happy to have an informal discussion about your plans.

Read the BBC article:  www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-37976082