Schools

Please contact us to see how we can make books exciting for your school!

We have over 30 years’ experience in working with schools, whether it be organising book fairs, arranging author visits, consulting on school libraries & classroom book corners, or preparing selections of topic-based books for teachers to choose from. We also provide a speedy and reliable ordering service for all your classroom needs, and can quickly deliver book tokens for prize-giving. We offer free delivery and a schools discount, where possible, to schools in the local area. Our knowledgeable, friendly booksellers can advise you on book recommendations and topic-based lists, and our book fairs offer a huge range of fantastic hand-picked titles. Schools receive a credit on our sales at book fairs and school author events.

 School Author Visits
We have many years experience bringing authors into schools and have organised school events for many authors, including Julia Donaldson, Cressida Cowell, Emily Gravett, Chris Riddell, Liz Pichon, Matt Haig, Sophy Henn, Vashti Hardy, Ross Montgomery, Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet, Stewart Foster, Katherine Woodfine, Sibeal Pounder, Darren Shan, Helen Peters & Scarlett Thomas. School author visits fall into two types:

Promotional: These are typically offered to us by publishers when an author is going out on tour to promote a new book. The event is generally free for the school on the understanding that the books are on sale following the event and promoted within the school in the run up to the event. Please email Gudrun at info@steyningbookshop.co.uk to join our schools mailing list, so you will be notified of any author school tours coming up in our area.
Paid events: Outside of their promotional schedules, most authors charge a fee of between £150 – £400 for school visits and workshops. These days, it is much easier for schools to arrange school visits themselves via authors’ own websites / agents / social media –  we are happy to supply an author’s books to your school on a sale-or-return basis if you have arranged a visit yourselves, and can also help to organise a visit with one of the Sussex-based authors such as Sophy Henn, Vashti Hardy, Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, Helen Peters, Abie Longstaff, Sam Lloyd, and Sam Watkins, whom we have frequently worked with.

Schools can receive a credit to spend on books from whatever sales we make at a school author event, as long as sales exceed £150.

Book Fairs
We bring a wonderful hand-picked selection of books to your school for our book fairs. We generally spend an afternoon or a whole day at your school, and can advise and recommend books to children, staff and parents. We also offer evening book fairs to accompany your school parents evenings or curriculum evenings. Schools receive 15% credit from our sales to spend on books with us. Many schools like to have a book fair during the week of World Book Day so do get in touch early if you’d like one at this busy time.

Teacher and School Resources 

We can  advise on recommended reading lists and supply the books, help you with curriculum-based book selections, and can present Year Group / Key Stage recommendations and roundups of the latest books for staff INSET days or parent/teacher evenings. We can consult and advise on updating your school library and classroom book corners, subject to a minimum firm order requirement.

Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson, best-selling author of ‘The Gruffalo’, who lives in Steyning, kindly takes time out of her busy schedule to do occasional class workshops at local schools. The school must be within a 25 mile radius of Steyning, and the children involved in the workshops must be no younger than 7 years old.

We regret that Julia does not accept requests for ribbon-cutting opening ceremonies, School Fete appearances etc.

If you’d like your school to be considered for a visit from Julia please email Gudrun at info@steyningbookshop.co.uk for further details of what a visit entails and Julia’s fees.