Acclaimed children’s illustrator and author Kate Pankhurst opens fairy woodland-themed ‘reading bus’ at Holy Family RC Primary School

Date published: 08 November 2022

Acclaimed children’s illustrator and author Kate Pankhurst officially opened a new fairy woodland-themed ‘reading bus’ at Holy Family RC Primary School in Kirkholt on Thursday (3 November).

Kate – known for her Fantastically Great Women series – visited the school to talk to the children about her work and inspire them to become illustrators or authors. 

Elizabeth Chamberlain, year six teacher and English lead, applied for the bus last year, one of Transport for Greater Manchester’s decommissioned buses given away at the end of their usable term.

Ms Chamberlain explained the school intended to use the bus for reading for pleasure purposes and the application was successful, with the bus received in the summer.

On their return to school in September, the year six reading ambassadors set to work planning how they wanted the bus to look.

A friend of the school, Frank Gac, who is also a bus driver, gave up lots of his free time to help transform the bus.

Frank worked tirelessly to remove parts of the bus that wouldn’t be used and create a more welcoming reading space for the children.

The reading ambassadors formulated a questionnaire so that children throughout school, from nursery to year six could all have their say on how the bus should look.

The children selected a fairy woodland theme and so the school staff, reading ambassadors and Frank worked diligently to realise this vision.

Ms Chamberlain said: “We are so pleased with how the bus has turned out and are delighted that Kate Pankhurst came to our school to officially open our fairy woodland reading bus. 

At Holy Family, we place a huge emphasis on reading for pleasure and our school staff work tirelessly to promote and support children's reading choices.

“There are many wide-ranging benefits to reading for pleasure and at Holy Family we focus on promoting reading for pleasure at every opportunity.

“We have lots of initiatives in place across our school which promote reading for pleasure and our new reading bus is the latest addition.”