Every year their employees have the opportunity to select a project which supports charities in their local community and spread a whole lot of happiness at Christmas time! The projects support a range of initiatives addressing different needs and causes in the areas where their employees are based.

The Aldridge Foundation applied to get support purchasing new books for the Aldridge family of schools and colleges and we were lucky enough to be chosen by two project teams, one to support Dukes Academy in London and the other to support Portslade Aldridge Community Academy and Brighton Aldridge Community Academy in East Sussex.

Every year thousands of children leave school without the literacy skills they need to get a job, limiting their life chances and engagement in society. If you ask any teacher what the best thing you can possibly do to support children with their education is, they will say read. Read to them, read with them, provide them with books and make sure they have access to books they like. We want to ensure that the young children that we support have the skills they need to succeed in life and so this donation will make a real difference.

The employees selected a range of both fiction and non-fiction books for each of the three schools. The books will be used in a variety of ways, some will be put in the school library, others will be used in core lessons, and some were given to students as prizes for the achievements they have made this term.

I was thrilled to find out that Zurich wanted to support PACA School Library through their Christmas Challenge this year! The generous donation of books, which feature diverse characters or themes of diversity, will be thoroughly enjoyed by our students for years to come. We are enormously grateful for their support.

Caroline Wheelhouse, School Librarian, Portslade Academy