Every book is a gift to its reader and pupils at Dashwood Academy will now have more of them following a generous £500 donation from lettings agency Finders Keepers.

The money will be spent on acquiring a range of books from classic literature to modern day authors for the school’s library bus which opened its doors to pupils in 2017.

Carly Bunn is overseeing the accelerated reader programme at the school which falls under the Aspirations Academies Trust and said: ‘’This year we have had a big push on the ‘reading culture’ at Dashwood in the hope that all children leaving their education journey with us will leave a confident reader, being able to successfully choose books at an appropriate level for them and to leave the academy as a child who has a big love for reading.

‘’The generous donation will allow us to purchase more books to fill up shelves on our library bus and in our classrooms, as we get the children involved in becoming independent readers.

Ms Bunn added: ‘’It is an aim of ours that children at Dashwood have access to a range of books; from classic literature to modern day authors, both male and female. It is also important to us that children enjoy reading a whole range of books, including non-fiction texts.”

‘’The donation will help us continue to build a reading library that will support this aim, and allow the children at Dashwood to thrive in their choosing of a book that fits in with their unique reading pallet.’’

Richard Goodwin, Office Manager at Finders Keepers in Banbury said: ‘’We are always looking for ways that we can help the local community.

‘’When we found out about the Reading Bus we decided this was a worthwhile and good cause that we absolutely wanted to get involved with.’’