A SCHOOL has been given £3,000 as part of a Scotland-wide funding package for school libraries, designed to help combat disruption caused by Covid-19 school closures.

Elphinstone Primary School is host to one of 13 Scottish school library services benefiting from the Government’s School Library Improvement Fund (SLIF), introduced in 2017.

This year, the grant scheme, totalling £100,000 and administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), is prioritising projects aimed at supporting school library service provision for pupils during the Covid-19 lockdown and periods of remote learning.

Elphinstone was awarded its funding for a project called ‘Elphy Tales’, which aims to encourage a passion for reading. The project will involve author and Courier columnist Tim Porteus running writing workshops, linking storytelling to creative writing. Tim will also deliver staff training to help build a programme of storytelling and creative writing for the literacy curriculum.

Tim said: “We decided that there was a need to be creative in the current circumstances and so I have told stories and given riddle challenges for the children on YouTube films, which have then been shared in Google Classroom by teachers.

“The aim is that, with the help and support of their teachers and carers, the children can explore their own interests and creativity through storytelling.”

Melanie Collier, principal teacher at Elphinstone Primary School, said: “For many families, this second lockdown has been extremely difficult and many of our parents have said: ‘My child/children have really enjoyed listening to Tim’s stories as well as having their ideas/requests of stories being brought to life by Tim.’

“One of our parents also said: ‘Having the daily riddles really helped my child get up in the morning, as they were excited to see what the new daily riddle would be. It helped motivate them to get started with the rest of the daily learning tasks.’

“Having Tim has really helped create a new, exciting dynamic to our remote learning classroom.”