Queen Camilla meets Moreland pupils in the playground

QUEEN Camilla met excited primary pupils school on Tuesday as she helped open their new library.

Students and teachers at Moreland Primary School, off Goswell Road, welcomed Her Majesty, who is patron of the National Literacy Trust, at an event that marked both the library opening and the first anniversary of the coronation.

The celebrations included a poetry recital, interactive storytelling and a performance from the school choir.

Moreland’s library is the 50th in a series of primary school libraries transformed to celebrate the coronation, with the aim of improving access to books in communities with low levels of literacy.

Her Majesty with authors Joseph Coelho, Cressida Cowell, Jennifer Cross and Chris Smith

Moreland’s head­teacher, Catherine Lawrence, said: “Access to books at home is limited for many of our children.

“This new library gives families the opportunity to share the joy of books together, regardless of their background or circumstance.”

She added: “This new chapter for our library is a momentous occasion for our school and community.”

The library now has 300 new books, as well as the top-23 children’s books in the UK, as voted by children themselves.

These include family favourites, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney and the enduring classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea, by Judith Kerr.

Moreland Primary School’s library claimed another milestone as the 1,000th library opened under the Libraries for Primaries campaign.

Co-founded by the National Literacy Trust and Penguin Books in 2021, the project seeks to address the lack of investment in primary school libraries, particularly in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities where one in four primary schools doesn’t have a library.