‘Incredible response from authors and publishers brings joy after utter sadness’

May Bank Holiday Monday will now always be remembered in Yatton as the day that fire ravaged the infant school, taking the library along with a number of classrooms with it.

The devastation shocked parents of children from the school and residents in the North Somerset village alike and as the process began of trying to piece the beloved school back together again, Kate Alton decided to launch an appeal to replenish the library.

The plight of the school and the nature of Kate’s appeal soon captured the imagination of those on social media and before the first day of her reaching out was over, the request for books had gone viral with famous authors and publishers alike, getting in touch with offers to help rebuild the devastated library with new books for the pupils.

Speaking to Somerset’s Alive!, Kate explained her thoughts about launching the appeal and then how she has dealt with the huge response since.

Kate said: “So, at first, when the school was still burning, no-one knew how bad the fire was. The hope was it was a couple of classrooms, at most. But in the end it was announced that all six year 1 and year 2 classrooms had been destroyed.

“That was bad enough – but I realised that the library was on the same corridor, so that had surely gone with the rest.”

The library was a special place for many of the pupils and Kate continued: “It was my daughter’s safe place – her sanctuary – and it broke my heart to think of her and her peers with no books until the insurance came through, which as you’d expect would take some time.”

Kate decided that she would take some direct action to resolve this situation.

She said: “So, I took to Twitter. I follow, and am followed by, a number of authors and other writery people, so I thought they might be able to supply a few books just to keep the kids going until the Summer.

“Ditto with facebook – I put a similar callout on local community pages – did anyone have any new, or very nearly new, books for age 0-8?

“The response was unexpected and immense, escalating quickly until the original post had over 600k views, and thousands of retweets.”

Kate then started getting inundated with authors contacting her directly.

She continued: “Not only that, but over a hundred people sent me messages directly, offering copies of their books, or even sometimes boxes of books, to restock what the kids had lost.

“It quickly became clear that this was going to be something special. I was contacted by a number of radio shows to do interviews, including the PM show on BBC Radio 4.”

With the appeal becoming a national concern, Kate was overwhelmed by the offers she was receiving to help the school in other areas.

Kate explained: “I was offered not only books for the school, but resources, author visits, and help reinstalling ICT. And, of course, books started appearing. Hundreds of them. I had to get stuff organised, I knew, or I would get snowed under.”

Kate had to devise a plan to sensibly organise and distribute all that she was receiving for the school: “So I made a list of everyone who had promised books, and have been ticking them off as they arrive.

“I then stamp each appropriate book with the school info, and organise it by type, and then age. Finally, I split the books into curated boxes for each age group, labelling them with a year and giving each box a letter, so teachers can rotate them and know if they are getting a new box. And so it has continued.”

At the time of speaking to Somerset’s Alive!, Kate said that she was still in the beginnings of sorting out what had been sent for the school.

She said: “I think I have so far received about a third of what I have been promised. One library box has gone out to each class so far, and I’m working on a second set.

“The generosity has been immense, and so appreciated by the school and the kids. A few people have, as you might expect, used the appeal to get rid of any and all old books, but the vast majority have been well looked-after, and a large chunk of what has arrived has been beautiful, brand new books, comics, and magazines.”

With work underway to repair the fire damaged classrooms, some of the classes are having to be taken in nearby schools, with buses being provided to get the pupils to the temporary place of learning.

Headteacher Jo Keeble has praised the adaptability of her pupils as they adapt to their current predicament.

Speaking to the BBC, Jo said: “My children make me proud every day.” said headteacher Jo Keeble.

“I’m so happy that everything has gone to plan this morning. I’m sad as well that I haven’t got all my children on site, as we normally have,” she added.

“Young children are amazing and they skipped and hopped in – and that’s what we wanted.”