The Borders Book Festival will be getting a technology boost on its Schools Gala Day through a continued partnership with IT services firm CGI.

Borders-based CGI is sponsoring the gala day after previously helping the Scottish Borders Council to deliver the successful roll out of its Inspire Learning programme.

It will be the first time that the gala day is being delivered in a digital interactive format, with live cameras at MacArts in Galashiels, while pupils will bring along their iPads, which they use in school as part of Scottish Borders Council’s Inspired Learning digital programme – to interact with the master storytellers.

The festival returns to its first in-person Schools Gala Day since 2019 on Tuesday the 20th of September, with a series of events with authors and illustrators appearing on stage at the Volunteer Hall and MacArts, Galashiels.

In one of the single biggest annual events for schools held in the South of Scotland, more than 1,000 nursery and primary school pupils from across the Scottish Borders are set to join storytellers including Alan Windram, Tola Okogwu, Jonathan Meres, Rossie Stone, Kate Leiper, Joan Haig, and Anne Brusatte.

This year’s collaboration is part of an ongoing partnership between CGI and Borders Book Festival which began in 2019, with plans for future schools’ events to be presented in towns across the Scottish Borders.

School groups that are unable to travel to Galashiels will still be able to participate, with some of the events being livestreamed in partnership with Scottish Borders Council’s Inspire Learning team, opening the celebrations out to hundreds of classrooms throughout the Borders.

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Commenting on the news, Lindsay McGranaghan, Senior Vice President and Business Lead for CGI in Scotland, said: “We are very pleased to support the Borders Book Festival once again and look forward to seeing children enjoying the Schools Gala Day.

“We believe strongly in investing in the communities in which our members live and work and that encouraging a life-long love of reading amongst young people is hugely important.”

Paula Ogilvie, Festival Director, said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership once more with CGI to welcome school groups in-person and online from across the Scottish Borders for a special day filled with imagination and magic.

“The festival aims to promote creative learning and hopefully this year’s events will encourage our young audiences to develop a love for reading for pleasure, and above all, to have fun with words.”

Other funders and supporters of educational activities within the Borders Book Festival 2022 include Creative Scotland, Scottish Borders Council and Live Borders.

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