Workshop Discussion
Moderator
The five outcomes are – achieving economic wellbeing; making a positive contribution; staying safe; enjoying and achieving and being healthy. To which of these do you think a school library makes a significant contribution?
[General consensus of ‘enjoying and achieving’]
Moderator
Are there are any particular characteristics of enjoying and achieving?
Participant
I think it is just promoting the books and having a display on the author of the month. It is not just reading books, but listening to stories. You are promoting independence; I think you are encouraging the children to go off and be independent.
Participant
It is an escape from their background; good school libraries with appropriate professionals are able to provide that. Not all libraries are that good, however.
Participant
I think because of where we are from it is staying safe. The Learning Resource Centre is close to a technology college; our focus on staying safe has been promoted through e-safety and research. We are moving to the e-book system at the moment; they are able able to use those in a secure and safe environment, to get onto our VLE from home, and our forums. The librarian, or manager, is driving it through school. The resource learning centre as we call it has been moved from a remote location in a tower down into the heart of the college, in the English corridor. One effect is that children have been able to be more experimental with technology; the books are there as well, but they can explore online and use the centre without being scared that any inappropriate contact is going to be made. Parents can come in and see what the kids are looking at and exploring the technology. It is very positive.
Participant
On being healthy, we have just bought a Wii Fit, which will go in just after Easter. We have some very obese kids, who are not enjoying school; we have a lunchtime club where we talk about healthy eating and playing on the Wii Fit, which hopefully they will enjoy and they will achieve more in the school, not just in the library. It is in a back room with a white board that seats about 30 kids. It is quite private. We are involved in the government healthy-eating campaign which is in the paper every day, and show them how to snack healthily. They are really enjoying it, they are loving someone taking them through it. There are also lots of books with issues in, so we hope that the health issues will link to that.
Participant
It is about their mental health as well. It is relaxing; they get away from the stress of the classroom and the pressure of exams. To go somewhere, read a book and relax for a little while I think is fantastic.
Participant
That was a really big thing when the YFS was brought in; it was about having somewhere quiet to go, so they did not have to be active all the time. The whole thing with the Foundation Stage is that that is exactly what it is.
Participant
We are quite lucky because we have an accelerated reader programme and in Key Stage 3 they have a dedicated hour each week for accelerated reader in English. It is such a nice environment; the whole class goes down to the library and reads for a whole hour. If you walk in to the library during that hour, it is so relaxed and peaceful and there is a very nice atmosphere, different to the classroom.
Participant
It is very difficult to separate the outcomes, because you cannot achieve economic wellbeing if you do not enjoy and achieve and you will not be healthy and stay safe. They are so interrelated. I could not say to which of those libraries make the greatest contribution. It is not necessarily the library, although I know that is what you are talking about; it is actually the reading culture at school and at home that makes the difference and it is being taken on board from the top. If that culture is not absolutely embedded in the school, if everyone is not modelling that, it does not matter how perfectly equipped your libraries are or how good your librarians are. That is my particular passion; people say ‘I have done reading; I have got a librarian, they are responsible.’
Why should English teachers be responsible for literacy? Do people not read in other subjects? Is that not a cop out? Other teachers can turn round and say, well, English teachers are doing literacy, so we do not need to worry.
Participant
A primary level it is about reading across the curriculum.
Participant
We get it wrong at a secondary level; ‘they have an English teacher, they can read those maths questions,’ but they cannot.
Phil Smith
Coming to that point, it is about ‘what is the role of the library?’ Is it to take classes in for a reading lesson? What is its role in terms of getting the parents involved? We set up a room in which we installed lots of computers and laptops, and staff were booking the room to use for a computer lesson. However, that was never the point; it has now evolved into the room that students who are doing work for which they need access to a computer they can use it. Where does the library fit in? Do we just book it out, take a group of students in, tell them ‘this is your library lesson, you must read books’? Or is it a resource we encourage them to use when they need it, so they can go there when they need to find something out? It is so underutilised by so many departments. History, for example, could do fantastic stuff in the library, but they never take their students or encourage them to go. For me, that is how we define the role of the library, LRC, whatever you want to call it, within the school and the community. Are we using it in the way that we would expect adults to use it?
Participant
Our school has gone in for project‑based learning in a big way, thinking skills and second‑year project‑based learning; it has had a huge impact on the use of the library; to develop thinking skills they are working in teams. It is all the subjects; we only have one or two subjects which are outside project‑based learning in year 7, so they have to come to the library and find books on their projects. I had to buy a load more resources for them, because they are coming in and using the library, and thinking and working together in teams. They have been told they have to have books and internet resources in their projects and it is really making a difference.
Moderator
I acknowledge that the interrelationship of the outcomes makes it very hard to distinguish.
Participant
Everything stems from that: enjoying reading, and understanding how it will help them improve their achievement. It links into all of those, but it stems from them doing reading.
[Cross talk]
Moderator
We have talked about how school libraries support ‘enjoying and achieving’.
Participant
I think our library will become something very different because of the whole learning community element ‑ the opportunities for family learning and adult education. As a primary school, at the moment we do not do anything like that. That is where we are going to move with the library and making a positive contribution to the local community is going to be our driver. I think as a result of that the library is going to become something useful as opposed to a dumping ground with books in it, as it is at the moment. To me that is a really big thing in terms of the way communities are changing, regardless of who the next government will be, community cohesion and family learning will remain high priorities.
Philip Ellington
I think the concept of a library in a primary school is very different to in a senior school. Although most primary schools will have a library of some sort, it may be based in a corridor. The idea of a library is very different where I work. Non‑fiction is spread right across the whole school; it is in all the corridors and all the bookcases are there. The children access those frequently. Our non‑fiction is stored in an area where people can sit and work; if an area or corridor is working on the Romans, all the Roman shelves will go onto library trolleys and be placed in that corridor. Our library goes to the children rather than the children going to the library and that works really well for us.
Participant
In the primary school, there is already a wealth of fiction and non‑fiction in the classroom base; the library is then an additional resource.
Philip Ellington
Our local public library has just been revamped with tons of money put into it. It is absolutely brilliant and we link very closely with that. Our school library service in Cambridgeshire has just been closed, as of last week.
Louise Brown
Going back to ‘making a positive contribution’, many students in my comprehensive school slip through the net in terms of being praised. This could allow more students to be praised for their reading and being a reader. One boy who is highly autistic and has difficulty with social skills I know has read more books than any other student in the school this year. His contribution is to talk to other students about reading; he shows them how to the Accelerated Reader Program, but also talks to students about his reading. He works as a librarian; for him that is his opportunity to make a positive contribution: not through sports or brilliance in maths, but just by being in the library and as a reader. He is one I can think of, but there are many within our large comprehensive school who find that opportunity in the library; that is why that is important to him.
Participant
For the large comprehensive school that I am at, positive contributions are being made throughout the EAL (English as an Additional Language) department. Many students join us who do not speak English, and many of them are our library prefects. Through the learning of English they have taken to reading the texts, looking at the computers as well. It is a good way to motivate students for whom English is the first language who are not enthused by it; students from a background where they do not have that access to the great literacy we do can help them find that enthusiasm. It is a really nice twist; it builds community bridges where there may have been tension. You see kids telling each other ‘read this book, it’s great’, ‘well, you are not from here and you like this book’, ‘yeah, read it.’ It provides a focal point within the library, which we never thought would happen.
Participant
With our EAL students, the library helps them to integrate them into the greater school. The start with just a couple of lessons and the rest of the time they are in the library having individual lessons, looking at their country of origin, and they gradually get integrated into the school. It is a wonderful, safe barrier within the school. It is not too much for them; they cannot cope with five or six lessons a day in a different language; they need a place to which they can retreat. For them, it is a wonderful way to come into the country.
Moderator
It is interesting that you have been talking about resources and integration with the school, but you have not talked about librarians or resource managers or mediators. Is that significant in terms of delivering these outcomes?
Participant
I really wish we could get away from the term ‘librarian’, because the children’s image of a librarian is quite dusty and not terribly friendly. I can quite see how this image developed, because I have met people who do not like children and think having them in a library is a bad idea.
Participant
They think they own the library, and the books!
Phil Smith
If it is a formal, intimidating space, the last thing the children we are trying to reach will want to do is be confronted with huge shelves of books which they are intimidated by.
Participant
Or the person managing it. I think they should be called literacy champions, not librarians, because it really does not have that ring to it, does it? I want to change the name ‘librarian’, because you cannot get rid of that image. I am scared of librarians; why are local libraries not open on Sundays? Mine is not. What is that about?
Participant
The one day you can go.
Participant
Although we say it is a collective responsibility, it never is, it always falls with the literacy teacher.
Moderator
Imagine the money suddenly appeared and imagine you write a job description and a personal specification for a literacy champion, what would that personal specification and job description be like? What would be the characteristics and skills of that person?
Participant
They would have to have fantastic communications skills. That has to be top of the list. Probably above being a qualified librarian.
Participant
Liking other people.
Moderator
If you had this magical, marvellous person, would it be more likely to be a teacher than a librarian?
Participant
I would not have a teacher. I am not sure teachers have fantastic communications skills.
Participant
It would have to be someone who had an understanding of learning.
Participant
A traditional view of a library is that is just for books; it is not, that is why we have three Learning Resource Managers, not librarians;– one knows computers backwards; another knows the books backwards and the other goes round all day helping the kids to find things and checks work; she is only part time.
[Cross talk]
Participant
Literacy has been the big push for us for a couple of years, and the school thankfully – our new Head needs to make an impression – has invested heavily into LRC. He has done the right thing. We are a technology college.
Participant
You have to be passionate about and know how to use technology. I have e‑readers and e‑books, I show them how to use online book marking tools, and things like that in the Sixth Form. They know it and if you do not know it you are immediately relegated.
Participant
I do not like the fact that it is seen as only books; I have come across people who work in schools libraries who get very upset if you mention technology. The two have to work together; we are in a technological age whether you like it or not.
Moderator
Does anyone feel that there is an over compensation for technology within school life and the book is being squeezed out?
Participant
You have to get the balance right. There is a place for technology in a library, but not as a replacement for the books; it has to be a proper balance. It should not be a place that is used as a computer room and kids occasionally have a look at the books. It should predominantly be a library for books where technology supports that.
Participant
Yes, it should be a balance; the two are equally important.
Participant
It is very frustrating when you see your budgets drop year after year and you get less to spend on books, yet they are quite happy to spend on technology.
Participant
I tap into the technology budget as well, and I have a digital photo‑frame, and every time I get new books I update it; kids love it. It is simple, and not expensive.
Participant
In many schools librarians feel sidelined and believe they have not got the ability to reach the people who have got the money.
Participant
You have to fight for it.
Participant
They need to be on the leadership team; they cannot promote literacy unless they are on the leadership team.
Moderator
If the status of a literacy champion, librarian, LRC manager is really important, how can that happen? What are the arguments that can be used? What would a head teacher listen to, when you have a Maslow hierarchy of needs and you are worrying about the fundamentals of keeping kids safe and getting their level fours?
Participant
How can they get their level fours if they cannot read? It is fundamental to everything that a head teacher is responsible for.
Philip Ellington
It is the fundamental of teaching and learning, and what schools are about; if it is not at the heart, what are we doing for our students.
Participant
To play devil’s advocate, my class teachers are providing that. I need to look at the library and think how it can enrich what is already good in the school.
Moderator
I think it would be unusual if, between us, we could not come up with three or four schools with outstanding Ofsted reports that do not have a school library, schools which seem to be delivering those outcomes, so what unique selling point does a library have? What, as a head teacher, makes you say you are going to invest in this resource?
Participant
Some school around us have got a rid of their school libraries; one academy has rebuilt itself without a library.
Moderator
What is the thing that makes you, as a head teacher think, actually, even though I can get away with it I am going to invest in this resource?
Participant
It is about the added benefit, the enrichment and for me that is the opportunity for independent learning away from the classroom. We have a junior librarian and once we put that in place all the children wanted to be reading and changing their books. I also think that family learning is going to be central, in terms of the funding I can obtain, but also whether it is an enriching resource.
Moderator
In the last five minutes, let us look at the priorities. What are the challenges your school faces moving forward, where a school library could make a difference? Also, in that context what would have to be different about the school library, because a school library at the heart of extended provision is very different to traditional school libraries? What are the things on the horizon that are important and how might a school library have to change or re‑imagine itself?
Participant
Working with a local library so you have story time and baby rhyme time; we have a link with Kent County Library, which the playgroup visit and have stories read to them. There is a group which does computers for older people. It is about being more open to members of the public; many schools think they cannot have any extra adults in; we have got to lose some of that fear, while providing a safe environment after school. It is a balance.
Phil Smith
You were talking about the library being more proactive, and taking the idea of a stiff librarian sitting being the desk and people coming to you, we are raising the profile of what we can provide others, for the classroom teacher, for the community.
Participant
We need to have somebody in charge, who is proactive and passionate and will go around and find things they can do and ways of engaging pupils. I think that is one of the most important qualities needed.
Participant
As secondary school have more money than primary schools, they have a responsibility to serve the primary schools, not to demand from them. Every secondary school has its feeder primary schools, even single sex schools, and if the secondary schools could provide a library bus which spent half a day in the main feeder primary schools, it would share resources and create great excitement among the kids. My girls used to love it. It is such a simple concept, which would save money. I could drive it!
Participant
If I wanted to open my library to the wider community to promote family learning, I would need to keep my stock refreshed and the money is not there.
Participant
Secondary schools do have more money; do not let them tell you they do not.
Participant
As a secondary school struggling with our feeder primaries, we have liaison groups who meet every half term, and we cannot get the primary schools to let us in. We have told them what we want to do, but there is fear. We are going to feeder schools, telling them we want to work together, and provide what they want. However, we are struggling. It happens at a senior management level, but as a classroom teacher, when I visit, and ask what I can bring, it does not filter through.
Participant
Head teachers in primary schools should be championing it and guiding it.
Participant
It is changing the culture of a divide between primary, secondary and college. We have a link with the college as well, trying to bring the learning community together; we are in the early stages.
Participant
Years 5 and 6 of my local feeder primary come into my library and change books.
Moderator
What opportunities are offered by the collaboration and the clustering of primary schools in terms of provision?
Participant
I have a really strong development group and we have a very effective relationship with head teachers, but also with other teachers and support and activities that are provided, but we have to prioritise. You cannot do everything at once. For us the major development has been in the performing arts, so maybe that is somewhere the library could enter into it, but it would be a bit of a tenuous link. When we think of everything we want to do, perhaps the promotion of libraries would actually be quite low down.
Participant
We can also learn from what specialist schools do within their local communities and other schools who work with them; it is phenomenal.
[Cross talk]
Participant
We have family support workers working between five different schools.
Participant
I think family support workers are brilliant and absolutely essential, but when people talk about adult education and literacy in families, I have this selfish belief that when you have children in school, all your opportunities and activities are about them; their parent carers have had their chance; if you can do a little bit that is fantastic, but it is really about the kids and the impact they are going to have in the future, and on their kids. Not that we do not care about the carers…
Participant
The reason I support it is because those adults are the role models for my children.
Philip Ellington
If they do not know how to read to and listen to their children, they are not going to be able to support them.
[Cross talk]
Moderator
We are going to have to draw things together now and this is your opportunity to say anything that you really wanted to, but have not said yet.
Jenny Wyman
I would like to see more modern languages provision in libraries and more sharing between schools, particularly for the new primary school developments.
Moderator
Thank you very much. The report will be published in June.
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