Help at hand

What do you want from your Book Fair?
The aims of any Scholastic Book Fair are to get children reading and to gain free books for school. The more people that get involved in the Book Fair, the more likely it is to be a success, resulting in more commission for you to spend on new books for school.
With a bit of extra help from volunteers, Book Fairs can be turned from a low-key event - in which the bookcases are simply put up in the school hall with the hope that parents might come in and look at them - to a whole-school reading celebration that enthuses the children and involves the whole community.

Starting points
Once you have a plan in mind for your Book Fair, you can set about recruiting volunteers. When planning think about :
· running a theme, such as the Enchanted Theme [PROVIDE LINK TO PAGE 9 AND OTHER MARKETING ON WEBSITE] which will need displays and decorations and offers dressing up opportunities for the people running it!
· linking in with other events in school, such as Book Week or other activities taking place that week - maybe you have a school focus on Space, history topics or cultural events that could provide a focal point for the Fair
· holding a dressing-up day
· competitions
If you think big and involve others, your enthusiasm will soon spread!
Make a list of all the jobs that need doing and start recruiting.

Subhead: The bare essentials
You will need help with the following:
Before the Fair
* Inviting everyone
Send out Book Fair invitations - classroom teachers could distribute these, or they could be given out at assembly.
* Promoting the Fair
Put up Book Fair posters and create displays - try the school secretary or the allocated children helpers.
Send a letter home to parents and highlight it on the website - perhaps the Head teacher could be involved in this?

During the Fair
* Setting up the book cases just before the Book Fair opens
If you are lucky enough to have space you may be able to just do this once and leave the cases up for the duration of the Fair. But in most schools, the cases need to be put away and reopened each day. Parents or older children make great volunteers for this. Set up a rota.
* Manning the cash desk
You will need to set up a rota for this. Depending on the size of your school, you will need at least two cashiers. Before the Fair it's a good idea to have a brief training session for all cashiers. Make sure they know to whom cheques need to be made out, how to use the credit card machine and how to take orders if the books aren't available. Older children love the responsibility of being cashiers, but it makes sense to have an adult helper alongside them in case of any queries - a parent helper or teaching assistant would be ideal.
* Book browsing
If children have the opportunity to spend some time browsing through the bookcases, they are far more likely to encourage their parents to come and buy for them! Classroom teachers, teaching assistants or school buddies (Year 6 partnered with Year 1 children for example) are perfect for running browsing sessions during the school day. Make sure that they have the Book Talk Notes from the Planning Kit, or downloadable from [PROVIDE LINK] so they can give more information on particular books.

After the Book Fair
* Counting up
The money taken at the Book Fair will need to be counted and double checked. Children relish the opportunity to do this and love finding out the total amount raised. They will be pleased to announce this, perhaps at an assembly, so everyone knows how successful the Book Fair has been and how many new books for school have been obtained.
* Choosing how to spend the commission
This doesn't have to be one person's responsibility, perhaps the literacy co-ordinator may like to choose some books for the school library, the children helpers could be allowed to choose some classroom books, or individual teachers given a budget to spend on educational resources from the Commission catalogue. But one person will need to coordinate which books are requested. Books can be taken from the Book Cases, others need to be ordered on the catalogue order form in the planning kit [or download from ????].

subhead: Taking it up a level
Creating a theme
If you choose to use a theme, you'll need volunteers for creating displays and decorating the Fair. There is usually at least one person in a school who is a dab hand at visually exciting displays. Enlist their help to create a display in the entrance or reception to school the week before the Book Fair arrives to create excitement about the forthcoming event. At a whole school gathering, such as assembly, invite the children to bring in suitable props (all clearly labelled) for the display. Helpers at the Book Fair can be invited to dress appropriately, which all adds to the fun and excitement.

Holding an event
If your Book Fair can be linked to something else going on in school, such as parents' evening or a special achievement assembly, make it more inviting by offering refreshments. PTA members, dinner ladies or playground supervisors are ideal candidates for bringing in cakes and biscuits and making urns of tea and pots of coffee.

Reading with children
Invite volunteers to come into the Book Fair during the school day and at the Book Fair to hold story-telling sessions. Parents and grandparents are often willing to do this but also consider asking your local librarians, and if there are any local authors, ask them too! You could even try your local theatre or amateur dramatic group, they should be good at holding an audience, but also find out about local celebrities - the local football team could provide some great role models. Make sure your volunteers have a copy of the Family Guide to Reading [link to page on Scholastic website] to give them some tips on reading with children before they come in and the Book Talk Notes [link to page on Scholastic website] on specific books.

Holding competitions
The best competitions are fun to do and easy to manage! They help to promote the Fair and if you announce the winner during the last day of the Book Fair, it's likely to bring more people flocking through the doors! Enlist one volunteer to be responsible for running the competition. Older children will come up with some great ideas for competitions, or use the resources on the website [provide link] such as wordsearches or colouring competitions. Once it has been decided upon, your volunteer will need to distribute it along with a letter explaining what to do. Encourage everyone to bring their competition entry to the Fair (rather than sending back to class teacher).

IN BOX
Who to ask for help:
Older children
PTA members
School Governors
Teaching Assistants
Parents
Dinner ladies
Grandparents
Other teachers
Local celebrities
END BOX