Queen Camilla sketches crown for Bristol school children on first solo trip since coronation

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Queen Camilla has joined students at a Bristol primary school on her first solo visit since the coronation.

While she was there, Her Majesty sketched her crown, signing it "Camilla R".

Nine-year-old pupil Ireoluwa Adegbuyi, who was sitting next to the Queen, said: "She said hers was a little bit wobbly and she said mine was quite good."

She also opened a new library at Shirehampton Primary School - the first of 50 planned nationwide to mark the coronation.

The Coronation Libraries Project aims to boost literacy levels among young people and give them a life-long love of reading.

Queen Camilla met with author Malorie Blackman today, Thursday 18 May. Credit: ITV News West Country

New reading spaces will be set up in areas with low levels of literacy that have been among the hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis.

Camilla has visited many of the areas before, as Duchess of Cornwall and Patron of the National Literacy Trust.

Each library or reading space will be refurbished, restocked and two members of staff will be trained to manage it.

In addition, a commemorative coronation plaque will be placed in each library. 

National Literacy Trust CEO, Jonathan Douglas said: “Astonishingly, 1 in 7 state primary schools does not have a library so we are very proud to be working with our partners and helping to enhance 1,000 reading spaces in primary schools across the UK."

Headteacher at Shirehampton Primary School, Louisa Munton, said: "The library will harness their enthusiasm for reading even more, help them to continue to see the pleasure books bring, and enable them to secure better outcomes in reading.

“To see, first hand, the passion the Her Majesty Queen Camilla has for reading, and share with her the difference our new library will make to the school community was a privilege."

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