Scottish Book Trust to fund six school's resident authors

Scottish Book Trust's new scheme will offer six schools a fully funded author-in-residence.

The Book Trust are giving six schools a fully funded experience with authors Picture: Alan Peebles

The Live Literature School Residencies project will provide the successful schools with ten sessions with an author at no cost, including time to plan and evaluate the project.

Scottish Book Trust will pay the author’s full fee and expenses and provide a contribution to the cost of resources for sessions. The school will also receive support from Scottish Book Trust’s experienced team, including suggested learning resources and next steps after the project, and their project will be showcased on the Scottish Book Trust website.

Schools can apply via the Scottish Book Trust website and projects which are intended to inspire a love of reading and writing will be given priority. It is also important that the project will have a lasting impact in the school and for the pupils who take part. The deadline for applications is Wednesday May 25 at noon.

Caitrin Armstrong, Head of Writer Development, said: “We know that author visits have a hugely positive effect on pupils and teachers alike, and writing residencies have a long-lasting impact on children’s enthusiasm for reading and writing. However, with budgets growing ever-tighter, paying for the author’s time can be a prohibitive factor for many schools. For this project, we are particularly looking for schools for whom cost is a significant barrier to running author events.”

Schools that are unsuccessful can still apply for funding to pay half the visiting author’s fee and travel through Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature programme, open twice yearly for applications.

What schools receive: Ten sessions with an author from our database at no cost – including time to plan and evaluate your project with the author; Scottish Book Trust pay the author’s full fee and expenses directly through the Live Literature programme; A contribution to the cost of resources for sessions e.g. photocopying; Support from Scottish Book Trust’s experienced team; Your project showcased on our website, suggested learning resources and next steps after the project to help you make the most of the sessions.

The deciding panel will decide the six final schools based on the impact it will have on the children - inspiring a love of reading a writing. Projects also need to have a lasting impact on both the school and the pupils who take part - recommending schools choose to work with a particular year group, specific classes, or that you build a project around a particular theme, book or series.

Find out more at The Scottish Book Trust.

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