Teachers and Librarians

In 2019 The Siobhan Dowd Trust is repeating the opportunity for schools to go to a local bookshop (preferably a small Independent bookseller with a good stock of children’s and YA books) and select books.

This year instead of organising by region, we will be giving away up to £2000 monthly.

Here are some guidelines:

The selection is to be made by a small number of pupils aided by Librarians and Booksellers. Part of the aim of this project is to encourage the art of browsing and for young people to feel ownership about the books chosen for the school. We are assuming the books will be part of the library, but are happy to consider applications for home/ individual ownership – please say if this is the case.

Where possible, we would like the pupils to be PP or need encouragement/recognition in some way.

It would be great if you could publicise the visit in the local press and on social media (we prefer Twitter to Facebook).

This year instead of organising by region, we will organise it monthly. If successful, you will be notified by email and all the winners will be listed on Twitter and on the Trust website.

We  announce the winners of each month on the 1st of the month using our Twitter (@sdowdtrust)and by a direct email to the winners (e.g. January winners = 1st March announcement; February = 1st April…  this is to give the Judges time to allocate the grants.)

Because of the high numbers applying, we’re sorry, we may not be able to notify unsuccessful applicants.

The Judges reserve the right to go back to previous entries from past months (so if you don’t win in the original month you applied, there’s a chance you could be successful later in the year).

The competition is open to any group which works with disadvantaged young people, not just schools. We’d like to hear from more non-school groups, but you do need to demonstrate disadvantage in your application.

How to apply:
Please send a short email to our director Kate Powling (director@siobhandowdtrust.com) explaining what you do to encourage a love of reading – small anecdotes about particular young readers can work well.
We also need your school’s FSM and PP figure as a percentage and the number of pupils at school. (A low number isn’t necessarily a bad thing as we know those schools have less funding). Without this information, your application will be delayed.
We don’t need: lots of educational information about progress – we know that’s important, but we’re more about the love of reading.
For more information, please see http://siobhandowdtrust.com/teachers-and-librarians/ or Twitter: we’re @sdowdtrust