A Kent Rotary club is sponsoring a local primary school to take up reading challenge Buster’s Book Club for two years.

Herne Bay Rotary Club is the first Rotary club in the region to agree a long-term sponsorship deal of the KM Charity Team literacy initiative.

The club made the commitment to sponsor Herne Bay school Briary Primary following a presentation made by KM Charity Team chief executive Simon Dolby.

Simon said: “The club’s members were massively enthusiastic about Buster’s, and were determined that there was sufficient time for it to build momentum at Briary. So they took the decision to provide enough money for the school to sign up for two years.

“This is an extremely generous gesture, and I am sure that both the club and the school will soon be noticing Buster’s positive impact on pupils’ literacy performance.”

Briary Primary School has impressed recently with its approach to literacy: it won the county and Canterbury district prizes for the best initiative to encourage reading for pleasure at the Kent Literacy Awards.

The school’s literacy leader, Fiona Gallimore, said: “We are hoping to build on our Kent Literacy Awards success by encouraging more children and some of our reluctant readers to enter into the competitive nature of Buster’s Book Club.

“We looked at the reading scheme quite often but budgetary restrictions haven’t allowed us to do it, so this gives us an opportunity to try something different and just encourage more children to read.”

Buster’s Book Club encourages children to read extra at home, with classes competing each week to be awarded the Reading Class of the Week Trophy. A monthly inter-school reading challenge awards winning classes tickets to leisure attractions or visits by storytellers.

Schools that sign up for the club by December 1 will be entered into a free prize draw to win 400 books.

Any other businesses, organisations or societies interested in sponsoring Buster’s Book Club should contact Simon Dolby at sdolby@thekmgroup.co.uk or on 0844 264 0291.

Buster’s Book Club is supported by Little Cheyne Court (Romney Marsh), Kent Community Foundation, Golding Vision (part of Golding Homes), Orbit, Rotary, Three R’s Teacher Recruitment, Medway Council, Specsavers, Leeds Castle, Diggerland, Wildwood, Acorn Read and Grow, Revolution and Kent County Council.

Find out more about the club at Bustersbookclub.co.uk.