All aboard: Romford school converts bus into permanent library

A school has turned a double-decker bus into a permanent outdoor library for pupils to enjoy.

Crowlands Primary School, London Road, Romford, faced a difficult dilemma when an expansion project meant the library room had to be converted.

Not wanting to deprive her pupils of access to books, headteacher Hayley McClenaghan put her thinking cap on and came up with an creative solution.

“Having a library was hugely important for the children,” she said.

“It was my idea to get a bus and once that idea was sown, we made it happen.

“We found a double decker and a local company, Space, refurbished it for us – we are really grateful.”

The wheels on the bus might have stopped turning to take up permanent residence in the playground, but the cogs in the pupils’ minds are definitely in motion thanks to the additional educational resource.

“The children love it,” added Mrs McClenaghan.

“The bus stimulates creativity and [the fact] they have access to all that information is hugely important.”

The bus was formally opened by acclaimed children’s author and former pupil, Nick Butterworth, of Percy the Park Keeper fame.

“The new library bus is a stunning piece of innovation – what a brilliant idea to take something as iconic as a red double-decker bus and give it such a wonderful second lease of life,” he said.

“I’m convinced the inventiveness, the sheer sense of fun in making a bus into a library, will act like a magnet and draw children to the books and this bus will take them on journeys beyond their imagining.

“Almost without trying, their literacy skills will be boosted and, as a result, so too, their life chances.”