Nursery World - Nurseries denied Book Day tokens

Children in private nurseries and playgroups have been denied free 1 book vouchers issued to schools throughout the UK to celebrate next week's World Book Day, despite the organisers' claims that 'every schoolchild is entitled' to one. Linda Pirie, owner of the Croft Pre-School Nursery in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, said she was shocked when the World Book Day helpline said her nursery was ineligible because it was in the private sector, even though she had received the tokens for the past three years.

Linda Pirie, owner of the Croft Pre-School Nursery in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, said she was shocked when the World Book Day helpline said her nursery was ineligible because it was in the private sector, even though she had received the tokens for the past three years.

She was told she must have been mistaken in thinking the tokens she had received in previous years were connected to World Book Day and they may have been those issued by the publisher Puffin. 'But I can assure them they were World Book Day Tokens,' she said.

Mrs Pirie said she felt very strongly that this was discrimination. She said 50 of the 90 children at the nursery are in local authority-funded places. 'There is so much talk of inclusion, but I feel this is deliberate exclusion of the private and voluntary sector,' she added.

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