Past BookTrust programmes

Find out about the programmes and campaigns that BookTrust has run in the past.

Programmes archive

School Library Pack

Please note: our School Library Pack will not be delivered in 2023 while we take time to learn and research how we can best offer more targeted support for secondary school aged children from low-income backgrounds in the face of rising costs. Our Special School Library Pack will still be delivered to qualifying Special Schools.

National Bookstart Week

National Bookstart Week was BookTrust's annual celebration of sharing stories, books and rhymes with children aged 0-5. You can still enjoy all the activities, rhymes, videos and interactive storybooks from 2016 to 2018.

Spark

Spark was a programme gifting free books and resources to special schools to suit both primary and secondary-aged children: designed to inspire a love of stories and books in children with additional needs.

Story Hunters

Story Hunters was a reading adventure for Year 4 children, designed to help struggling or reluctant readers. Each pupil received a monthly pack of books and activities over a six-month period. It ran from 2016 until 2018.

Beyond Booked Up

Beyond Booked Up, 2012-2018, was a free programme providing resources to eligible schools for use with Year 7 and Year 8 students. These included a range of accessible resources designed to help develop speaking, listening, writing and reading skills for 11- to 13-year-olds.

The Ant Club

The Ant Club, 2012-2018, was a free reading for pleasure programme for targeted primary schools, offering free resources designed to boost confidence and inspire a love of reading in Reception and Year 1 pupils.

Booktime

Booktime, 2005-2015, was a national programme encouraging families to read together providing a free book pack to every Reception aged child in England and Wales.

Booked Up

Booked Up was a national programme that ran for five years from 2007 - 2011. It gave every 11-year-old in England the chance to choose a free book during their first term at secondary school. The aim was to encourage reading for pleasure and independent choice.

Read for My School

The competition was free for all primary schools in England and challenged children in Years 3-8 attending primary and secondary schools in England to read as many books as they could across the spring term. Prizes were available for pupils and for schools taking part in the competition, at regional and national levels.

The Write Book

The Write Book was a project for Year 5 teachers run by BookTrust from 2013-2015. It supported teachers in four primary schools to run whole-of-year-5 writing projects inspired by classic or popular children's books, enabling pupils to respond creatively to high quality children's fiction and nonfiction texts.

Stories Tour

The Once upon a time tour ran from November 2013 to April 2014. We took the family story show to over 45 venues and more than 1500 children, before providing storytelling training to over 100 venue staff and volunteers.

Everybody Writes

Everybody Writes ran for 4 years until 2011 providing teachers with innovative ideas and practical resources to help them run projects to get children in primary and secondary schools excited about writing.

Summer Active

Summer Active was a BookTrust project designed to encourage reading for pleasure amongst 11-year-old children.

Bookbite

Launched in 2010, the Bookbite programme encouraged people over 60 to discover new authors and genres, to try a range of creative writing activities and to interact with others online to share stories and book reviews.