DARTMOUTH Rotarians gifted 66 school leavers with various books including dictionaries and thesauruses when they finished term last week.

A Rotary spokesperson said: “On the final day of their last year at primary school, a day of farewells to Year Six classmates and teachers who’d been part of their lives since the age of five, 66 young people from five schools in the area received a gift from the Rotary Club of Dartmouth. A book that will hopefully serve as a memory of those days now past, but also something that will serve them well as they progress to secondary education.”

The books were gifted to selected pupils at Dartmouth Academy; Blackawton; Stoke Fleming; St John the Baptist; and Kingswear Primary Schools

Stoke Fleming selected dictionaries for their young people and Blackawton chose a combined dictionary and thesaurus. Dartmouth Academy took their Year Six pupils to the community bookshop in the town where they each selected a book for themselves. And St John the Baptist similarly allowed pupils to make their own choice.

The spokesperson added: “Kingswear decided on a substantial hardcover book entitled ‘The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain’, edited by best-selling novelist Katherine Rundell, which contains 133 contributions in the form of short stories, poems and illustrations from people well-known in the field of children’s literature.”

The books were all presented by Club President Trevor Branton, accompanied by Struan Coupar who’d organised the 2022 initiative.