World Book Day 2024

To mark World Book Day 2024 (Thursday 7 March), the Premier League has given away more than 50,000 free books to children across England and Wales through its Premier League Primary Stars education programme. Since Premier League Primary Stars began in 2017, more than 300,000 free books have been gifted to young people with an estimated value of £2.4million, thanks to the education programme’s partnership with the National Literacy Trust. Launched in 2017 and available to every primary school in England and Wales, Premier League Primary Stars uses the appeal of football to help children to be active and develop essential life skills. World Book Day promotes reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own as according to National Literacy Trust research, children who own their own books are much more likely to enjoy reading, read daily and read to relax. National Literacy Trust research also found that one in eight children from disadvantaged backgrounds said they did not own a single book of their own at home, and the book ownership gap between them and more affluent peers is the largest seen in a decade. Currently, 104 professional football clubs from across the leagues run in-classroom Premier League Primary Stars sessions in local partner schools. More than 68,000 teachers have signed up to access free online national curriculum-linked resources, to date. The total Premier League investment into Premier League Primary Stars, via the Premier League Charitable Fund, is £61.9million, to date. For more information, please visit Premier League Primary Stars.

As part of our Premier League Primary Stars delivery we gave away books to local Bath primary schools including St Michael’s. Pupils at St Michaels and created a Book Swap Shop as part of their Social Action Project. Each pupil chose a book to read and present to others as they came into the Book Swap Shop, helping others chose the right book for them.