Year three pupils at a Cwmbran school are enjoying regular visits to the town’s library. The trips are made even more fun by the teacher taking them on a public bus.

Beth Newton, the year three teacher at Greenmeadow Primary School, started the three-weekly visits to help “instill a love of reading” in pupils.

She told Cwmbran Life: “Our remit as teachers is encouraging reading, enthusing readers, and I wanted to do that with my year three class. For our first session, Matthew Geary at the library set up a lovely welcoming session.

“He explained how it all worked, he really impressed me with how he enthused the children from the first visit.

“He showed them how to use the Dewey Decimal system, he showed them all the resources in the library and what the library can bring to them.”

Mrs Newton takes the 20 pupils to the bus stop outside the school and they get on the number six bus into the town centre to bring back books and borrow new ones.

She said: “The staff always comment on how the children behave. They know how the library works now. They’re accessing the non-fiction and the fiction, They’ll often find a cosy corner and sit down with their friends, really excited to share their new books with them.

“I want to foster a lifelong love of reading and exploration and to be aware that libraries are there for us to use and to able to immerse ourselves in all the amazing resources.

‘Studies show that children who read better, that impacts on their test scores and their achievements throughout their lives. As teachers, we’re obviously always trying to push them, and thinking of ways to enthuse them.

“Quite often when they’ve finished their book they swap their books with others in the class. I want to instill a love for reading and what they can get from the pleasures of reading, imagination building, and their vocabulary building.”