Raising funds for diverse books at Brookfield Primary School
Can you help the children at Brookfield access books that reflect them and their society?
At Brookfield Primary, we strive to create an inclusive, and joyful learning environment. A key part of this is ensuring all our children can access books that mirror their experiences, the society they live in, and beyond. Diverse books in classrooms and libraries foster a sense of belonging, showing children that school is for and about them.
Having audited 500 of our books, we found the books available to children at Brookfield do not reflect their communities or the broader borough of Camden.
Official data shows that 58% of Camden’s primary school pupils are from minority ethnic groups*, and 19.8% need support with autism, speech, language and communications needs, social, emotional, and mental health needs, physical disabilities or other sensory and learning needs.**
Yet, our audit revealed:
- 86% of main characters are White. 14% have a minority ethnic main character.
- 60% of books have male main characters, 40% have female main characters.
- Few books feature neurodiverse or disabled characters.
- Gender-neutral and LGBTQ+ characters are underrepresented.
- Most books reinforced rigid gender norms and stereotypes.
We urgently need to redress these imbalances, but years of funding being outstripped by rising prices and increasing demands, means the school is reliant on donations for the majority of its books.
We have calculated we need just under one thousand new books to ensure the amazing diversity of our community is reflected in every classroom. With your help, we are hoping to provide:
- 960 new diverse books to be shared across all years groups from Nursery to Year 6, costing approximately £6,000.
We plan to enlist children's book ambassadors, as well as local and specialist bookstores in identifying the highest quality books that children love and that include diversity in all its forms including gender, race/ ethnicity, religion, family, socio-economic status, immigration status, neurodiversity, disability, and sexuality.
With your donation, big or small, we can build aspirations and broaden the horizons of children at Brookfield, creating a lifelong love of reading.
If you are interested in donating books and materials directly, please get in touch with the school.
If we're successful in raising more than our target, we aim to further improve the literacy resources, materials and equipment in the school, including for example, new furniture for reading corners, a refurbishment of the library, digital library system, audio book listening equipment, diverse speakers and poetry/fiction/drama workshops.
Data sources:
Organizer
Anella Wickenden
Organizer
England
Brookfield Primary School Association
Beneficiary