St John Baptist (Southend) CE Primary School is a small school, situated in an area of deprivation (in the highest 20% across the country) based in the London Borough of Lewisham. Despite the high deprivation, our school has faced enormous cuts to our budget. We have already lost six teaching assistants due to cuts, and therefore, we cannot afford to spend funds on much needed books. The school has been successful in bidding for funding through The Candlelight Trust to build a new library at the centre of the school. This is an incredible achievement and we are extremely grateful; however, we now need to raise funds to fill it with wonderful books that will inspire a generation of children to read!

We are aiming to purchase 1500 beautiful new books. These books will be purchased through Lewisham Library Service in order to secure the best value for the funds raised. Each book will be covered and tagged with a bar code so that it can be scanned through our new Library Scanning System, helping us to keep track of the books and avoid loss. Each pupil will be issued with a new Library Card that they will be able to use both in school and at their local library, extending their reading experience beyond the school itself.

We hope to open our new fully stocked library in July 2018 with a special launch event to which we will invite sponsors and the charities and organisations that have supported our project. We know that by providing our children with wonderful works of literature, we will nurture in each of them a life-long love of reading and improve the life chances of some of our most vulnerable. In association with this exciting project each of our pupils and teachers are to write a poem and this will be published in a book to commemorate this momentous occasion.

The teachers and pupils would like to say a big thank you for your donation and we would like to recognise you as follows - Donate £10 - your name will be recognised on a bookplate in 1 book. Donate £20 - your name will be recognised on a bookplate in 2 books and you will receive an invite to the library launch party in July. Donate £30 - your name will be recognised on a bookplate in 3 books, you will receive an invite to the library launch party in July and you will receive a free copy of the school poetry book. £50 - as per £30 plus your name will be mentioned in the poetry book and on our website.£500 will fund a whole shelf of books to which a brass plate dedication will be attached to acknowledge your special contribution (this will be in addition to all the other incentives, as per a £50 donation).

** IMPORTANT ** PLEASE REMEMBER TO PROVIDE US WITH YOUR CONTACT DETAILS BY EMAIL TO "stjohnslibrarybooks@yahoo.co.uk" AS JUSTGIVING ARE NOT PERMITTED TO PROVIDE THIS TO US - WE NEED THIS FOR THE BOOKPLATE, INVITE, ETC.

PLEASE DONATE, GET INVOLVED AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE