Puffin Book Club

How to run Puffin Book Club

Our ordering system has been designed to make it as simple as possible for schools to run. We hope that it will be so easy to integrate into your school's everyday life that you will look forward to the magazines as much as the children do.

With no master order forms, cheques to bank or boxes of books to sort out, Puffin Book Club's ordering system is the easiest around:

First we send you the number of fun-packed magazines you require for all the children in your school. Full of carefully chosen books that will appeal to children and parents alike, our magazines are designed to be taken home, browsed through, shared and enjoyed.

Specify a date on which orders are to be returned; then, when children have brought their orders in, just put the forms together with parents' cheques or card details in the freepost envelope provided and pop it in the post. Reassure any parents who miss the order deadline that they can place an order online and still earn money for your school.

Your orders will arrive at your school within seven working days. We're sure you'll love the fact that orders are packed individually at our warehouse and will arrive at your school in bags with the children's names on. The coordinator's role at this stage will simply be to hand out the bags to the children - meaning that the arrival of the books will become a special event that everyone can enjoy.

Fundraising

Puffin Book Club gives schools 50% commission to spend on our books with every order placed. This is a brilliant way of restocking the shelves in your classroom or library, as well as buying prizes and gifts for special occassions.

You will receive a statement with each consignment of magazines to keep you up to date with your credit balance. You can also check your credit balance online by going to My Account

You can spend your credit online - by using the basket function - and also by phone or by post by using the order form in the Classroom Choice catalogue.

What is the "Spend... Save... Smile!" reward scheme?

The "Spend... Save... Smile!" scheme is designed to reward loyal Puffin Book Club customers by offering extra commission for schools who actively promote the scheme to parents, resulting in £50+ (€80) orders from each magazine.

To benefit from the "Spend... Save... Smile!" reward scheme, your school needs to send in orders from parents of over £50 (€80) from magazines in the academic year that runs from 01/09/10 to 31/07/11.

New schools: your "Spend... Save... Smile!" reward of £5 (€8) for your first order will be applied on top of the £20 (€32) credit you also receive for placing your first £50+ (€80) order.

Orders placed by schools using their Puffin Book Club commission are exempt from this scheme, as are online orders placed by parents and invoice orders.

"Spend... Save... Smile!" rewards are only applied to one order per issue in the academic year that runs from 01/09/10 until 31/07/11. Credit will be applied after orders are processed.

Statement details are correct at time of going to print; money raised by orders placed after that date will be added to your next statement.

Read more about the benefits of "Spend... Save... Smile!" here. If you have any questions, please call the Outbound Sales Team on 0845 606 4267.

Online facilities for schools

You can view your order history, commission, account details, catalogue number and other important information online. Just log in to My Account and you can find all the information you need, including your school's balance.

Our easy-to-use ordering process only applies to orders placed by post. We feel that this is the easiest way for schools to order from Puffin Book Club because it removes the need for the coordinator to collate parents' orders or process payments, so we have concentrated on making this way of ordering really nice and easy. It is still possible for schools to order online, but books will not be delivered ready-bagged so the coordinator will have to sort out each child's order.

Unfortunately, it is not possible for your school to be invoiced for orders placed online. Because we have taken as many admin tasks as we can away from the coordinator to save schools time and effort, we have had to simplify certain processes and as a consequence invoicing will only be possible for orders placed by post. With our easy-to-use postal ordering system, however, we are sure that you will find that running the club in your school has never been easier.

About the children's magazine

Our full-colour magazines are designed with children in mind. With features, quizzes, competitions and the best books around, there's something for every child aged 3-11. Our fun puffin characters - Toddle, Hop, Skip, Jump and Fly - introduce books in a relaxed and humorous way, while our buying team place an emphasis on choosing books that children themselves will really enjoy. From popular film and TV characters to simple stories for early readers, classic fiction to bestselling new titles, all of the books in our one-stop magazine will help you create a buzz around reading in your school. We are now also offering books for grown-ups so parents can take advantage of our great discounts and raise money for school at the same time.

About Classroom Choice

With each consignment of children's magazines, coordinators will receive Classroom Choice, our brilliant catalogue for teachers. Classroom Choice is full of fantastic titles on which to spend the money parents have raised, and the selection is refreshed every two months so there will always be new books and collections to choose from. Schools can also claim free books from the children's magazines, or go online to the Classroom Choice page on the website, which offers even more titles to browse through.

About Kids Only!

To make our website appealing for children as well as for adults, we've created a special area, called the Kids Only!, just for them. Here kids can enter competitions, find out about their favourite authors, meet the Puffin Gang, laugh at the latest jokes and send photos of school events to be featured on our Billboard. They can also apply to join the Puffin Pundits, our team of critics who read and review the hottest new titles and see their reviews featured in the magazine.

School coordinators

When your school decides to become a part of Puffin Book Club, we will ask you to nominate a named coordinator who will be the key point of contact for the club. The coordinator can be a teacher, administrator, parent or other helper, and will be responsible for specifying a date for orders to be brought to the school, sending off orders and payments to Puffin Book Club and distributing the individually packed orders when they are delivered to the school. The coordinator can also decide how the money parents raise is spent, aided by the statement the school receives with each batch of magazines. Our friendly customer services team are always available to help coordinators with any queries they may have.

How to register your school

To register as a school account, you will need to speak to one of our representatives, who are available 9am-3pm, Monday-Friday, on 0845 606 4267. They will be able to talk you through how to get the most out of Puffin Book Club, and will also provide you with a password to use online.

Parents - opening an account

It's easy to register with Puffin Book Club and have your books delivered straight to your door. Simply complete the online registration form, select the school you would like to earn free books for, and you're ready to start shopping. The school you have chosen will automatically receive the commission you earn from the orders you place online and you can visit your Account page to see how much you have earned for your school.

If you are already registered with Puffin Book Club but have not received a password or have forgotten what it is, please call us on 0845 606 4216 or, if you have an email address registered with us, you can use our Forgotten password service to prompt a temporary password to be sent to you.