Pupils from an East Kilbride school proved to be avid bookworms when they picked-up a top national award.
Crosshouse Primary was named the overall winner in the School Reading the Most Books category of the First Minister's Reading Challenge 2020-21.
Winners were announced online today by the Children's Laureate and bestselling author of the How To Train Your Dragon series, Cressida Cowell.
Now in its fifth year, the First Minister’s Reading Challenge is run by Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing.
The awards recognise the efforts of schools and pupils to support reading for enjoyment and create a reading culture in their school, home or community.
All those who submitted this year will receive book tokens, with the winners also receiving a trophy.
Headteacher at Crosshouse, Isabelle Murray, told Lanarkshire Live: “Children are at the heart of everything we do and establishing a love of books, a love of reading and a love of sharing stories together is extremely important to us.
"Our learners embraced reading during remote learning and continued to read and share books using digital technology. We even posted class novels out to learners who were keen to read form a hard copy.
"We are so proud of the number of books we have managed to read this year and look forward to sharing many more books and stories with another. We have read so much we need to restock our library.”
The First Minister's Reading Challenge was launched in 2016 for Primaries four to seven and expanded to include all primary and secondary schools as well as libraries and community groups in its third year.
Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing, delivers the initiative on behalf of the Scottish Government and every school in Scotland is invited to take part.
First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "The reading challenge was launched to inspire as many young people as possible to discover a joy of reading, and I have been so impressed with all the innovative work schools and communities have been doing this year, rising to the challenge of doing this during these extraordinary times, and doing so with great ingenuity.
“Huge congratulations to the winners, as well as everyone who submitted incredible entries.”
The Scottish Book Trust will host the First Minister’s Reading Challenge Festival until this Friday, with digital events that schools can join online via their website.
Events include creative writing with Patrice Lawrence, a draw along with Ross Collins and a wildlife walk with Hamza Yassin. It will be available to watch on demand until the end of August.
