After an exciting meeting in half term Chairing the School Libraries Group, I am writing to tell you about our new direction of travel for the GSL Campaign. The Campaign has now launched Phase 2, after the successful Phase 1 which saw the groundbreaking survey of school libraries. In Phase 2, we are looking at deepening our political involvement further. This blog post will talk about our main aim, and there will be subsequent blog posts from Vice-Chairs Barbara Band and Elizabeth Hutchinson which explain our exciting and vital secondary aims. Main Aim and way forward With the remaining time, the Great School Libraries Campaign team plan to lobby the Government to get the document ‘ Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools’ adopted by the UK Government for the other nations in the UK. Along with representatives from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales on our group, we are all feeling really excited about it. Our two Scottish librarian representatives, Agnes Guyon and Anne De’Ath, attended the meeting to talk us through how the policy worked and didn’t work, ‘on the ground’. Nick Poole, CEO of CILIP and founder of the Campaign, was also at the meeting and after a frank discussion, we agreed that although the document wasn’t yet fully implemented by all local authorities and schools in Scotland, having a document setting out standards for school libraries for the whole of the UK was an excellent first step. We have a long way to go with this, lots of discussions and partners to find to help us, but this is our current direction of travel. We value your comments, and especially your offers of help. Please contact us on this website if you are an organisation which we could work with to achieve our goal. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions We also have decided as a group to endorse the IFLA’s School Libraries Guidelines manifesto of school libraries, and hold it as a standard that we aspire to ourselves. “The school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today's information and knowledge-based society. The school library equips students with life-long learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens.” School Library Manifesto As a group, we felt that we needed to be more aware of IFLA – the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The School Libraries Guidelines are accepted internationally, and this is something that in this country we have consistently ignored. We shall be working towards bringing a growing awareness of IFLA and how we can work to bring British school libraries more in line with international ones. All this is very exciting and very new! I hope that you approve of the way the Campaign is moving. Do keep in touch with us, either here on the site or on our twitter feed @GreatSchLibs or our Facebook Page. You can contact us on LinkedIn as well. Caroline Roche, Chair GSL Committee and CILIPSLG Committee

Background Everyone who visits St Ninian’s High School library knows it is a place of stories. They know stories can be fictional or factual. They also know that their school librarian can help them find these factual stories by equipping them with research skills – and this is where the S1 Information Literacy programme comes in. Every pupil takes part in three library programmes throughout their first year which all aim to develop information literacy skills: Library Skills (August to October) Researching Ingredients (December or January) The Suitcase Project (February to March). All these programmes take place with department and senior management support. Library Skills Library Skills is run in partnership with the English Department. Every first-year class takes part in four Library Skills sessions, including two on information literacy. Pupils learn how to plan their research, how to find sources which are current, accurate and relevant (CAR for short), how to use the information they find, and the importance of writing down their sources. I developed these resources when I started at the school in 2016, after talking with colleagues in other schools about what they did. Researching Ingredients Researching Ingredients is a short research project run in partnership with the Home Economics Department. It runs after Library Skills has finished, and allows S1 pupils to put their information literacy skills into practice by asking them to research a particular food ingredient. I also introduce one new skill in this session: how to write a bibliography. This reinforces the learning pupils complete in the first term, while also preparing them for a bigger research project in February. The Suitcase Project The Suitcase Project runs over two months, from February – March. Each S1 class visits the library four times over the course of a week, and work in groups to research a particular country. Each group is given a suitcase of objects from one country, and pupils pick an object each to research. They are asked to complete this research using one book and one website, presenting their findings (and bibliography) in a group presentation at the end of the week. This project requires the support of our Principal Teacher of Literacy, senior management team and several departments (including English, Social Sciences, Modern Languages and Religious Education). Classes are timetabled to visit from different subjects, to reinforce the message that information literacy skills should be developed across the curriculum. The S1 Information Literacy Programme This information literacy programme is designed to be cumulative and to give our pupils the chance to recap and reinforce their learning. I have continually developed it over the last three years to suit the needs of my school. I inherited the Suitcase Project after it had been successfully run by my predecessor, only changing it so that it included the requirement to produce a bibliography. The Researching Ingredients session came about after discussions between me and the Principal Teacher of Home Economics, with a desire to formalise the S1 information-gathering visits to the library. I was keen to develop this as I realised it could be a very useful bridge between Library Skills and the Suitcase Project. Impact and opportunities This work has led to library activities being included on departmental improvement plans, and to greater involvement with the literacy committee. The staff information sheet for the Suitcase Project has a list of literacy indicators which demonstrate how the project supports the advancement of our school’s literacy priorities and has led to requests from other departments (including Science and PE) to run information literacy sessions tailored to their subjects. I use the same opening slide with every class who come to the library for an information literacy session, irrespective of year or subject, to reinforce the steps of the research process: plan, find, evaluate and use. The S1 programme has also allowed me to develop sessions for older pupils because it has shown teachers that I am a useful, time-saving resource when a class is about to embark on a piece of research. It also gives me the opportunity to signpost to pupils that I can help them develop their information literacy skills, and that they can come to me at any time if they get stuck. The S1 information literacy programme helps our pupils piece together the stories they are asked to tell during their time at school. I’m very proud that the library is instrumental in helping our pupils develop these skills from the outset. Written by Pamela McLean, School Librarian

You can tell a lot about a school from its library. I am now retired, but when I was a local authority school improvement adviser and occasional Ofsted inspector, a visit to the school library was high on my list of priorities. Not all primary schools have a library, so in those cases, I would look for some alternative provision. I know things have changed in relation to Ofsted requirements, but in my opinion, those advising schools and/or reviewing them should still pay close attention to the school library. It gives an indication of what is happening in the rest of the school. A bit like a litmus paper. If a school had a school librarian, I felt confident I would see some good practice, as long as that person had sufficient time and capacity to fulfil the role. I recall one particular Monday when I headed for the library in a primary school in a deprived area of the North East, to observe a lunchtime book club run by the librarian. As I entered the room, two upper Key Stage 2 children were reading aloud to a group of Key Stage 1 children and not one of them looked up. They were too interested in the story. The librarian, looked proudly on, as the children took turns to read aloud. I was struck by the eloquence, confidence and expression of the readers and soon realised that I had stumbled across a little piece of school library magic. This was a regular event where Years 5 and 6 read to younger children, but the magic was due to the fact that they were trained by the librarian. It was seen as an honour to be a reader and time was allowed for the children to develop their skills. Both readers and listeners benefitted from this experience. The librarian had helped create a culture where reading was valued and children made good progress in literacy. This is just one example of the positive contribution a good school librarian can make to children’s progress and it was a privilege to see it in action. A designated library space, lovingly decorated with new furniture and up to date technology is a great asset, but some of the most effective school libraries I saw were the ones where staff made the best of whatever they had. Despite a lack of resources, they managed to create a comfortable, well organised, stimulating place where children used and enjoyed books. As one child once said to me when I asked how often they used their library, ‘What’s the point of a library if no-one uses it?’ I would expect a good library to have regular designated times for pupils to browse as well as study and, space permitting, I would expect to see clearly designated areas for different activities. I was often impressed by the knowledge of pupil librarians, who knew exactly where to locate particular kinds of books and how to make the best use of any technology available. Involving the pupils in library displays and events was another winner in terms of pupil engagement, fostering a sense of shared ownership of the school library. I have seen school libraries like book shops, with reviews from pupils and staff regularly posted on the ends of bookcases and others where books recommended by pupils were displayed in a prominent place and given high status. School councils often had a role to play in organising pupil surveys about library use, resulting in some valuable feedback for staff. Some children rarely have an opportunity to browse in a bookshop or a public library, which denies them the joy of coming across a book they might never have chosen before. Browsing isn’t always easy online but a good school library can compensate for this by allowing children to touch and experience an array of attractive books. Good class libraries are an effective substitute and sometimes for very good reasons, that is all a school can offer, but a whole room full of books is a different experience. I have seen some inventive ways to provide a school library – from buses in the playground, to walk-in cupboards and self -service libraries for parents and children. I have also seen some fantastic décor and displays, but the treatment and quality of the library books themselves is probably the best indication of the value a school places on reading. With limited budgets, it is now even more difficult to ensure an up to date stock but if the books are treated with respect and displayed well and children are given time to browse in a stimulating environment, they will want to read them. For some disadvantaged children, a school library is a haven of calm and without it they would struggle to access the books and technology to complete their homework. It’s been a privilege to see such good practice and now in my new role as a children’s author, I really appreciate links with school libraries, who do so much to foster reading for pleasure. Larraine Harrison

Establishing cultural change in schools is not an easy task – it needs to be managed efficiently, seen to be beneficial, and considered a necessity by those most affected by it. While many argue that a principle role of schools is to prepare students to deal with a digitally-driven world, for students to perform at their peak we need to redefine what ‘information literacy’ involves. Sure, the value of teaching digital literacy skills is a given, but to develop a more grounded culture of information literacy in schools, we also need to consider two other vital elements. Firstly, the essential role visual and emotional literacies play in the learning process for young people. Secondly, we have to extend the learning journey to include the entire school community; that is students, teachers and parents. When you consider the amount of visual information presented in the digital world, it makes sense to spend time investigating and analysing the way images shape how and what we learn. In fact, digital literacy may be more aligned with the production and consumption of images that the reading of prose. As the literacy skills required for visual analysis are similar to the comprehension and analysis of written texts, the value of teaching effective visual literacy becomes more evident. No one is immune to stress and, essentially, stress can fall into three categories: foreseeable and avoidable (being punished for bad behaviour), unforeseeable and unavoidable (the sudden death of a pet or relative), and foreseeable but unavoidable (sitting exams or going to the dentist). A student suffering from anxiety or whose head is not ‘in the right space’ will not learn effectively and may need extra attention to survive the rigours of the education system. Information literacy programs must now extend beyond the confines of digital literacy and include a solid focus on the development and understanding of visual and wellbeing literacy. If it does not, we are not preparing our students for the educational journey that awaits them. So, how do you develop this new culture of information literacy in a school? The answer lies in becoming more ‘user-centred’ and connecting directly with the three main elements of the client base: students, staff and parents. By delivering information literacy upskilling to each of these groups, the entire school community will become more informed, aware and directly involved in the learning culture within the school. Furthermore, parents who are directly involved in the learning process develop a clearer understanding of what the school is trying to achieve and how, as parents, they can support their child’s learning. An effective way to involve parents is to design a tailored program that covers the essentials of visual literacy, wellbeing literacy and digital literacy. One such program is The Southport School’s Study Skills Orientation Program for Parents. The program includes four modules and focuses on upskilling parents to provide support and advice for their child at home. It reflects a ‘pincer movement’ where the enemy is approached on both flanks rather than head-on. When parents feel more confident to deal with the educational demands and requirements their child is facing, they can support at home while teachers continue to support in the classroom. Information literacy support becomes available at both home and school. Module One of the Parent Program explores recent brain research findings, how humans (especially young ones) actually learn, and what the brain needs to perform at its peak. Module Two focuses on reading and writing and includes some upskilling in visual literacy development via analysis of picture book images, political cartoons, and charts and diagrams. Module Three focuses almost exclusively on developing digital literacy skills and introduces parents to the extensive range of online resources provided by the school. This session, more than any other, it a real eye-opener for most parents many of whom have been completely unaware of the range of instantly accessible, authoritative educational resources available via the library webpage. Module Four focuses on time management and coping with the stresses of school life. Here, the school’s extensive range of wellbeing and study skills resources are explored, and strategies relating to scheduling and planning are presented. In a perfect world, cultural change would happen smoothly and to everyone’s relief. Sadly, we do not live in a perfect world. Change takes time and effort and, if warranted, it is worth the journey. Obviously, not all parents come on board with the Parent Program, but at least they know it exists and is there for their reference. If we can extend the realm of information literacy to embrace new areas of concern, and share the educational journey beyond classroom walls and into our students’ homes, then we stand a better chance of preparing our young charges for their life-long learning journey. Guest blog: Andrew J Stark, Head of Libraries and Information Services, The Southport School, Queensland, Australia Shared by kind permission of JCSResouces. The original can be read here https://jcsonlineresources.org/blog/developing-a-culture-of-information-literacy/

My first Chatterbooks book groups at school were inspired by the sessions that I ran at the public library where I worked alongside my role as school librarian. I was hoping to roll out the format that had worked so successfully there, although I was faced with the challenge of having little time to plan and a lack of budget for resources. I immediately signed up to The Reading Agency’s newsletter, which kept me up to date when resources would become available. I set up two groups initially one for LKS2 and one for UKS2. The Reading Agency website was an excellent resource to help plan and deliver my sessions but by running weekly sessions I soon began to run out of ideas. This meant that more of my time was being devoted to planning the sessions for a small number of children. Although the groups were well used, I wanted to make them more inclusive and encourage different children to become involved. Four years ago, I spotted an opportunity on The Reading Agency’s Twitter page to win an author visit with a debut author Peter Bunzl and proof copies of his new book for my group. We successfully bid for the visit and Peter came and worked with my Chatterbooks children on his first ever author visit. Immediately this attracted attention in the school, more children were keen to find out about this group, where they would have exclusive access to author visits and early copies of books. We also started to review books for the TES Class Review, this created a real buzz around the group as children were given free copies of books and were able to see their reviews published in a national magazine. Since then we have bid for a number of opportunities and have created displays in the library. In exchange for this, the children are gifted free copies of books and the school is sent resources that are hugely invaluable for me, saving time when organising sessions. The interest and excitement generated by the children has encouraged more children to sign up for book groups and improved the engagement with reading and the library in general. We now run five Chatterbooks book groups, including a Pupil Premium group, which focuses specifically on developing a love of reading. Each half-term the children are given a book that they get to keep and we share it during our sessions and they take part in fun reading and writing activities based around the book. This could be a potentially time consuming group to run but I use the free resources on Authorfy.com to help with the planning, freeing up my time to focus on my weekly library time with the whole school. What started as two small groups has developed into an exciting and popular lunchtime clubs, that are constantly oversubscribed. I have had to increase the number of participants over the last two years, although this makes running the groups more challenging, I find it difficult to turn away eager readers. The children have been involved in so many varied and interested projects. They have presented reviews at The Education Show, interviewed authors during school visits, had special creative writing workshops and even had their reviews featured in actual books. It has also given me the confidence to try new initiatives in school having seen the level of interest in reading and writing increase across KS2. In September 2019 I set up an Authorfy Club, creative writing class after school, which has had positive feedback from the children, parents and teachers at school. This has generated additional funding for the school library which currently has no specific budget for books (outside of the School Library Service subscription), allowing the library to be updated with new stock regularly. I was thrilled when the impact the library has had on reading in the school was recognised in our recent Ofsted report. The inspector noted that the librarian runs five different creative writing groups, which are very popular. I think we have clearly demonstrated that it is possible to run activities that encourage reading for pleasure and engagement with the library even when time and budget restraints are in place. Written by Jo Clarke Library Manager Whitchurch C of E Primary School

BookPenPals pairs UK authors and illustrators with UK schools to make book recommendations via postcards. Schools reply with a postcard of their own. The Pen Pals pairings last for one school year, and the joys of reading, writing and drawing multiply. The project is a mighty group effort, and so the best way to write about it is to let the people volunteering speak about their own experience. What is Book Pen Pals? (from Kate Scott co-founder of Book Pen Pals) The impetus for Book Pen Pals arose when I found myself thinking about how many children’s books I had read which I wished were better known. I decided to find a way to share some of my favourite books with more readers. The idea was simple: I would send postcards to a school with a book recommendation and occasional writing tip. I tweeted to see if there was a school who would like me to be their book-recommending pen pal for the year. The answer was a resounding yes. In days, my single tweet had led to hundreds of authors, illustrators and schools getting matched up to send postcards for the school year. Everyone benefits. Children receive book recommendations from experts in the field. Authors and illustrators make a connection with a class, even a whole school, of readers. And because recommendations are selected from across children’s literature, the initiative can support campaigns such as #picturemeanbusiness and #diversebooks naturally and authentically. However, the admin required to match schools to Pen Pals was considerable, and could not have been sustained had it not been for Sara O’Connor offering to build a website. The Book Pen Pals website allows for easy participant validation and for the Pen Pals to choose their schools by age groups or geographic location. Sara is also creating a digital postcard function which will enable thousands more children to enjoy reading recommendations from our ever-growing stable of authors and illustrators. We have more ideas about how Book Pen Pals can help connect and support children’s publishing creators, teachers and readers so keep an eye on what we might post next... Why do the Pen Pals do it? (from author Savita Kalhan) When I saw a tweet last year asking authors if they would be interested in being a Book Pen Pal to a school, I loved the idea and signed up immediately. I send my book recommendations and writing tips on six postcards over the academic year to the schools I am paired with, and in return I receive postcards, messages and even letters from the pupils with feedback on my book recommendations – and often with students’ book recommendations for me. It’s a brilliant scheme and I have loved every minute of it! We share our love of reading and share our favourite books with each other. I run a teen reading group in my local library and I know from the teens who come along that they really appreciate book recommendations from an author who writes for their age group. As a BAME author now, I wish this scheme had been around when I was a child – I might have dreamt about being a writer and not thought that this was something that a little brown girl like me could never be. I’ve been so lucky with the schools I’ve been paired with – they all have amazing librarians who work tirelessly to promote reading for pleasure. And then there are all the additional benefits for the author – the pupils in the schools often read my books and send messages to me, which I love receiving as I love to hear from my readers, it’s a very special connection. And on top of that, the school libraries create these amazing displays as in the photo below. I’m really looking forward to continuing with the Book Pen Pals scheme. This year I am paired with the libraries in these schools: Addey and Stanhope School, Arden School, as well as St. Wilfrid’s School who asked me to be their Book Pen Pal for the second year running! The first postcards have been posted, and the magic has begun again. What do the schools get out of it? (from Emma Suffield, LRC Manager and SLA School Librarian of the Year 2018) At Saint Wilfrid’s CofE Academy we have been taking part in the Book Pen Pals scheme. As I am not a teacher I have been using this scheme with my book clubs. I chose to take part in this scheme as I really want students to feel connected to an author. Last year, Savita Kalhan was selected as our Book Pen Pals author and worked with my Year 10 book club. This year she is working with my Year 9 and 10 book club and we are so happy to have her on board with us again. Students were very excited to be collaborating with Savita as receiving recommendation postcards from an author helps the students to feel connected. We discuss Savita’s recommendations, research the books she has recommended and, as many of my book club members are potential writers, they also appreciate receiving writing tips from her to develop their own stories. One of the books recommended by Savita – Ink by Alice Broadway – had a big impact on the students. Luckily, Alice is a local author and a friend of mine, so we had her visit for just an hour after school to do an author session with the book club. Most of the students involved have now read all three books in the trilogy following her visit. The students spend a lot of time writing postcards back to Savita and we do this once every half term. Getting the students thinking of book recommendations helps them to think of books they have thoroughly enjoyed, to help develop literacy skills the students even like to write a little review about the book for her. We have also read The Girl in the Broken Mirror so the students get to know Savita as a writer, not just a Pen Pal. We spent time reading and analysing the book and writing reviews to send to Savita and we will be reading the book with different students again this year. I like to show the students who are taking part in the Book Pen Pals scheme and I share this on our library twitter page @stwLRC. I also have a display in the school library entrance for all students and staff to see the postcards that Savita sends. It is a great way to show the rest of the school that we do work with authors and it doesn’t always have to be via visits. I will be signing up for Book Pen Pals again next year as it is so beneficial to students whether it be through a class or just a small group of young people and it is a great scheme to be a part of. Book Pen Pals is not verifying new schools at this time, but will be accepting schools onto the digital programme in the near future so interested schools can register their details. Author/illustrators can sign up at any time. Visit www.bookpenpals.com for more details. Savita Kalhan is the author of three teen YA books: That Asian Kid, The Girl in the Broken Mirror, and The Long Weekend. Born in India, Savita now lives in North London. She runs a teen reading group at her local library, and loves visiting schools to give talks or to run creative writing workshops. If you’d like to know more about her, visit her website www.savitakalhan.com Emma Suffield is Learning Resources Centre Manager at Saint Wilfrid’s, a CofE Academy which provides a faith-led education to 1400 11-18 year olds in Blackburn, Lancashire. Under her guidance, the school’s issue statistics rose from 2,400 to over 18,000 in five years.

Just like most schools, at Ibstock Place School, we want our school library to lie at the heart of all that we do; unsurprisingly, this ambition means ensuring that we develop a strategic focus on raising the profile of the Library amongst our teachers, our parents and – most importantly – our body of pupils. To this end, we have developed two schemes which involve the pupils themselves. Through both qualitative and quantitative feedback, we are pleased to report, moreover, that these initiatives have worked. As our pupils have contributed to the growth and development of the Library, their appreciation and interaction thereof has likewise increased – and its profile has been raised. Pupil Acquisitions Committee We began our Pupil Acquisitions Committee to ensure that the reading-for-pleasure materials which we add to our library reflect the interests of our pupils. Two terms per year, we enlist at least one pupil from each tutor group to participate in this committee which meets twice throughout the term. At the first meeting, we ask pupils to come prepared with suggestions for books (or, indeed, types of books) they would like to see in the Library. We ask them to become ambassadors for their tutor group, cultivating a list which represents the interest of their classmates and friends. Interestingly, each of these meetings bears particular themes which are commonly requested by the pupils. Last year, one of our meetings revealed a taste for greater dystopian literature; at our most recent meeting, over fifty percent of pupil participants came prepared with requests for more tragedies. After this first meeting, the list of requests is collated and a collection of books is ordered from our nearby bookseller. Our second committee meeting invites back the same group of pupils so as to evaluate the books ordered based on their recommendations. We are fortunate to have an agreement with Heath Books which is located not far from our school; it provides us with 15-20 books to evaluate after each of these committee meetings, after which we return the ones we choose not to keep for the Library. Our committee has proven essential to profile-raising in our Library – our pupil committee cultivates ambassadors who are familiar and enthusiastic about our Library collections and they then work to increase the engagement of their friends and classmates. Reading Assistants Our second initiative to improve our Library's profile through pupil engagement is through our enlistment of 'Reading Assistants'. On each occasion that our Library receives a batch of new reading-for-pleasure materials, our Reading Assistants are called upon to help the Librarian by reading and reviewing them. A call for Reading Assistants is issued on a frequent basis; the pupils who nominate themselves reap the benefit of being the first to view and read our new books, thereafter writing a short review for our Library catalogue. Each Assistant receives a reward for each book they read and review. This has proven to be a very popular initiative for our keen readers who enthusiastically promote these books to their friends and classmates. It has resulted in new acquisitions being quickly publicised across the pupil body which means, in turn, that they become the most popular reads of the year! Written by Angela Platt BA MSc MA MCLIP Librarian & Archivist @acplatt87 Candidate Support Officer & Blog Editor CILIP London Member Network Events Coordinator CILIP Library & Information History Group

Most people outside our profession, when asked about the school librarian’s role, would mention books and encouraging reading for pleasure. However, in reality we all know that this is only a part of our job and that the development of good information literacy and research skills is just as important. The fact that fewer people understand this means that we often have to work much harder to get our expertise on this subject recognised. The recent proliferation of misinformation, disinformation and fake news has highlighted the need for information seekers to have the ability to evaluate what they find in order to filter out the inaccurate, the false and the irrelevant. I have been very lucky; my predecessor in my current school was a proactive, forward-thinking school librarian who had worked extremely hard to embed the delivery of information skills into the curriculum and had achieved success in certain subject areas. I was determined to keep going with this. As in all schools, staff members come and go and the link with departments changes, but I currently have successful collaborations with our Geography, Science and PSHCE teams. I also have the advantage of a weekly, 40-minute Library Lesson with each Year 7 form (four classes in all), during which I can start to teach these all important skills and then demonstrate them in practice within the collaborations mentioned above. Here are some of the activities I am involved with at the moment. Science in the Media This project is an early introduction to thinking about finding the right information. I lead a total of six 40-minute lessons, with the teacher in a supporting role, and this scheme of work is delivered through both Science and Library lesson time in the Spring Term of Year 7. This has several advantages: Students see the library as a classroom for all subjects, not a separate entity. Students see the LIBRARIAN as an expert in managing information for all subjects. Teachers have the opportunity to observe our specialism in action and to learn techniques themselves. Students see the link between the skills I have been teaching them and the research they do in other subjects. I use scientific articles from a variety of sources to get the students evaluating the information and thinking about source, bias, accuracy and ways of verifying any facts you have found. This also ties in with science teaching about ensuring accuracy in experiments. We add some fun elements at the end of the scheme with a look at scientific claims in everyday advertising. This project is described in more detail in my publication for the School Library Association, ‘A School Library for the Curriculum: Supporting Teaching and Learning’, available from the SLA (https://www.sla.org.uk/product/a-school-library-for-the-curriculum-supporting-teaching-and-learning). Here is what our Head of Science, Dr Richard Grime, said about the activity: “In our Y7 Science course, we have a very strong focus on the early development of core scientific skills to underpin all that we do in the secondary science curriculum. One of the elements of this is a focus on the way that science is reported in the media. This work teaches students to evaluate stories that they see and hear to judge whether they are based on reputable sources, the weight of the evidence, the accuracy of the reporting in relation to the published science and whether there is any bias or exaggeration in the reporting in order to make a good story out of something that is not that significant. The Science department has worked closely with the library to deliver this work on Science in the media during our Science Skills 2 topic. The librarian has developed a series of lessons to show students how to evaluate these media stories. The librarian delivers these lessons in the library setting with the support of the science teachers. By doing this work with the librarian in the library, it helps to show the students the importance of checking literature sources. The librarian evaluates the effectiveness of this work and refines the work each year.” Geography – Biomes On a smaller level I have worked with the Geography department for their Year 8 biomes topic. Although I don’t actually lead these research sessions, they take place in the library and I have developed resources to support them, such as a task sheet, research sheet and a selection of books built up over a few years. In a recent session the teacher had given the students individual biomes to research and set them off on this task with no other guidance. The lovely pile of books remained untouched as students dashed to the computers – a scenario I am sure we are all familiar with! At the end I suggested giving the class 20 minutes using the books only, before they were allowed online. She tried this with a different group and reported back that it went much better and many students remained using the books even when given the opportunity to go online. This example is proof that it is not only the students who need our support, but also the busy teaching staff whose expertise is in their subject area and not in search techniques of evaluating information. PSHCE – Super Skills In the Summer Term I lead a Super Skills Project through Library and PSHCE Lessons where we look at all the skills and qualities, outside the academic, needed to succeed in school and beyond. I have collected relevant articles on, for example, qualities such as empathy and their importance; or what employers look for when recruiting. Research is broken down into a structured process and students work in groups to create booklets to advise those about to transition to secondary education. Physics – Sound Technology The Sound Technology project is another small project which is led by the teacher and looks at how musical instruments produce sound. For this topic I provide: A selection of relevant books. A curated list of websites. Worksheets which structure the students research and encourage referencing. A workspace which allows a variety of resources and activities. There will be one off situations where a teacher will book the library for a lesson and ask me to deliver a quick, 10 minute introduction to the resources available to support their topic and to remind them of the research process. There are also departments with which I have little contact, but will continue to offer support in any way I can. Finding a teacher to work with is vital and, even then, staff come and go and it is a constantly evolving relationship with different subject departments. Of course, students must learn to use the internet effectively and also to evaluate the information they have found, but using books can introduce many of the skills they need to do this, without the distractions being online can bring. For example: search techniques – using a contents page or index teaches students to think carefully about their search terms. reading skills – you have to work harder to find something in a book and therefore skimming and scanning methods are vital. note-taking/making - using a book means that cutting and pasting is not an option. students are not going to copy down huge chunks of text and therefore have to be selective in picking out the main points. processing information – students must think carefully about putting information into their own words, therefore they have to understand what they have read and the audience to whom they are conveying it. For a long time I have used James Herring’s PLUS model for research (https://farrer.csu.edu.au/PLUS/) as a basis for guiding students through the research process. This can easily be adapted to suit a Year 7 project or a Sixth Former tackling an EPQ. Planning your work before starting; locating the best and most reliable information for your task; using that information efficiently and ethically; and self-evaluating at the end of your research – all vital tasks for any level of information literate student. I am now looking at the fabulous FOSIL (Framework of Skills for Inquiry Learning https://fosil.org.uk/) resources and am intending to find a friendly subject department with whom to pilot a scheme of work using this framework. This would entail a lot of effort building the structured development of information literacy skills into schemes of work in different year groups and I am sure will involve a lot of trial and error and amendments. It would be impossible to do this with many departments at the same time, but starting small and allowing students and staff to see the value and success of gaining these skills will hopefully bring more value and status to the school library. Watch this space to see how (if?) things progress…! My top tips would be: Start small and grow slowly. Be nosy and proactive in becoming involved - don’t wait to be asked. Have confidence in your expertise. Offer support wherever possible. Don’t be afraid to abandon something if it isn’t working. Like many aspects of the school librarian’s role, getting involved in delivering inquiry skills is something we have to demonstrate by promoting our expertise, building relationships and showing how we can bring benefits all round. Sally Dring Ripon Grammar School Learning Resources Manager Literacy & Numeracy Co-ordinator

We have had a Patron of Reading in the school since 2015 when Jon Mayhew started his two year tenure. The Patron scheme is very easy to run within a school, partly because there is no set way of doing things and you can work with the author to decide on what you both want to achieve. The basic premise is that you work with an author for a period of 1 or 2 years to promote reading in the school. You should be aiming to pay for at least one full day’s visit within that year, but you may be able to afford more and I have found that under this scheme, authors are wonderful at doing extra things in their own time, e.g. setting competitions, making videos to play in assemblies etc. I have needed to make sure I allocate time to organising events and keeping on top of what we are doing (some authors need more of a push than others!), but the rewards are well worth the effort. It is definitely worth having a frank conversation at the start where expectations are made clear (on both sides) and you get an understanding for how the other person works. Jon was a wonderful Patron, but, as was appropriate at the time, most of his work was focused on the Senior School. When Non Pratt took over in 2017, we were at a stage when we were looking to develop the links with the Infant and Junior sections of the school and I felt that our Patron of Reading should be part of this development. Non had the brilliant idea of creating ‘Book Bingo’ and she came up with a different bingo grid for each year group from Reception to Year 6. Reception pupils had categories such as ‘A story with a wolf in it’ and ‘A book with a yellow cover’ whereas the categories for Year 6 pupils included some that were more challenging such as ‘A book written by a Poet Laureate’ and ‘A re-telling of a fairytale or myth’. Pupils were given the bingo sheets to take home, along with a letter explaining the initiative to their parents. I then arranged times with the Infant and Junior Schools to award prizes to pupils who completed lines on their bingo grids. Running this scheme has meant that I have spent a lot of money on party bag fillers, as pupils have loved choosing prizes such as small bottles of bubbles, novelty erasers, stickers, bouncy balls etc. These are reasonably cheap to purchase and I have found that the engagement with the activity has made the cost to the library budget entirely justifiable. Any pupils who fully completed their Bingo grid by the end of term were put into a draw to win a book. Non was able to ask her publishers (Walker, MacMillan and Abrams) for donations for these prizes. The prizes were awarded in an end of term assembly where all the Infants and Juniors got together. For the first year, we ran the Bingo scheme twice (with different grids) – once in the Autumn term and then in the Spring term. However, we found that the engagement was much lower in the second term, partly because of the repetition, but also because the Spring term was much shorter and much busier. Therefore, in discussion with the teachers and the Junior School librarian, we agreed that just running it in the Autumn term was the best option. This has definitely proved to be the right decision as the enthusiasm was very high in 2018 and is again this year. When Non Pratt handed over to Mike Revell as our new Patron of Reading this year, she very kindly passed on her idea and templates and Mike has created new categories for all the year groups involved. Otherwise the scheme is running in exactly the same way, although Mike is hoping to arrange signed books for the winners of the draw just before Christmas. Also, as Mike is more local, we should be able to arrange for him to come in to school to award these prizes, whereas we weren’t able to coincide with Non’s visits (although she did manage a Skype chat with the Infants on one occasion). I have found running this scheme to be a joyful experience. I visit the Infants assembly each week and have the pleasure of seeing so many children enthused about reading. I am also often surrounded by Junior School pupils during a break time in their library, as they bring me their sheets and others gather round to see what they have been reading and what prizes they are getting. This has not only meant that pupils are reading (and getting excited about it), but that I have been able to start building relationships with the very youngest pupils in the school, something that can only help develop library use and engagement when they come up to the Senior School. During the first week of term this year, I walked past a group of Year 3 pupils in the dining hall, and heard the shout of ‘It’s the librarian!’, which led to us having a lovely chat about how they were settling into the Junior School and what they were reading. Without Book Bingo and the regular visits to the Infants, this connection would not have happened. I am incredibly grateful to Non Pratt and Mike Revell for spending so much of their own time in coming up with the interesting and challenging categories for the sheets. This shows how much the Patron of Reading role matters to the authors involved and how much they genuinely want to encourage reading for pleasure in the schools they work with. I am also very grateful to the Infant school teachers and teaching assistants, who are wonderful at reminding pupils to bring their sheets in every week and bringing them to the assemblies for me. Mrs Ainsworth and Mrs Callaghan, the Infant school Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher, are incredibly patient in helping the hordes of pupils choose prizes during the assembly too. However, one of the benefits of this scheme is that it is a home activity, so it increases parental involvement but I don’t feel that I am asking teachers to do too much. In fact, in the Junior School, other than giving out the sheets and perhaps an occasional reminder/encouraging chat, the teachers don’t need to do any extra work. I fully believe that Book Bingo has been a very successful initiative in developing the idea of reading as a pleasurable activity, increasing parental involvement with reading for pleasure and helping to develop a positive view of me, our Patrons of Reading and of the library in general. Written by Ros Harding Head Librarian and Archivist The Kings School, Chester SLA School Librarian of the year 2019 More information on The Patron of Reading Scheme can be found here

School library media specialists are taking on the important role of teaching media literacy to students and teachers, helping teachers find ways to include media literacy skills into their packed curriculums. I am a school library media specialist and in my career I have worked with students and teachers from K-12. Media literacy is extremely important and exciting. However, THERE IS SO MUCH that media literacy encompasses it is absolutely daunting when thinking about how to teach it. I know the pressure we put on ourselves as educators teach it all! There are plenty of ideas and resources on the Internet and in books... how do you pull it all together?  I do not have the answer...sorry.   I do have some advice, especially for those just getting started: -------- 1. NOTICE:  Notice what teachers and students (I even get ideas from items teachers leave in the copier) are working on and think of how media literacy can be incorporated (and dare I say improve the lesson or assignment?) Example: "Write a newspaper article" or "Create a news broadcast" assignment are interesting assignments but how many of our students have actually read (or touched) an actual newspaper and how many have watched a news broadcast (or can identify news from commentary)? Offer to teach a lesson on news or provide resources to help them (see #6). -------- 2. LISTEN:  Each year choose one or two grade levels or departments and attend their planning meetings on a regular basis. Listen to what they are planning and offer to teach or provide resources to add media literacy.   Example: In elementary school students learn informative, argumentative and persuasive writing. Apply what they are learning to what they see in the media - advertising and commercials are great places to start with elementary kids. Our elementary students also tour the town and the grocery store. Media literacy could be analyzing food icons (the  Jolly Green Giant story), cereal boxes, the use of colors or fonts on products or maybe just the psychology of how the grocery store is organized. Use the NAMLE Key Questions** to help guide you. -------- 3. JUMP: Do not wait until you have the perfect lesson. It will NEVER be perfect, but it will ALWAYS improve! Examples: A teacher wanted her students to create videos documenting the animals they were training throughout the semester. I purchased WeVideo seats for the class and told them they were helping me assess the program for a school subscription. We learned it together and talked about all the cool ways we can manipulate video to communicate what we wanted audiences to know. In our conversations we talked about how learning how to use WeVideo was making all of us think more critically about how videos we see in the media are manipulated to influence us. It was not a formal lesson, but a meaningful conversation. In Civics classes, next year we will include a using social media as a tool to connect with and learn from organizations that support each students individual Civics in Action Projects...I have an idea of what I want to cover in the lesson leading up to this but it is not perfect and I know I will learn with my students! This is the first step in what I hope will allow students to use social media more as learning and a civics tool. -------- 4. GROW: No matter what I teach, there is always room for improvement. Often the ideas come from students, I ALWAYS ask for their honest feedback  (usually in a Google form). Example: An English teacher asked me to teach her class while she was chaperoning a field trip, I found out that their class was studying Romeo & Juliet and comparing two different movie versions. I used that opportunity to teach a lesson on Film Literacy (see blog post). Kids love movies and this lesson was a great way to engage students with current films, discussing cinematic techniques. These conversations carried over in to their English classes as they could now analyze films for more than just content. Next year I will grow this lesson and incorporate the discussions of camera angles, etc in to  my WeVideo lessons when classes are creating videos as assignments. -------- 4. GET TO KNOW THEIR MEDIA: Students love their phones, music, movies, social media, etc. and will sense (and probably shut down)  if your lessons trashes the things they love. Find out what they are doing on the media - what games are popular or YouTube videos and design a critical thinking lesson about that.  Examples: A lesson about YouTube can be taught at any age. My 7 year old son is obsessed with the Dude Perfect and Turbo Toy Time channels. We talk about questions** like why do Ryden and his dad get so many toys for free? How does watching them open toys and play with them make you feel? Who makes money on this video? Find out what kids are watching and use them as example to teach.  Ralph Breaks the Internet is a great (and current) movie that I would suggest can be used at all levels to discuss Internet addiction, YouTube, gender roles in the media and social media status. I dare you to watch it and not be inspired to use in a lesson. -------- 5. SPREAD THE WORD: I have been asked by two administrators in the recent school year what I meant by "media literacy" and "close reading the media." Please invite your administrators in to see what media literacy is all about, showcase your work on social media and in parent newsletters...spread the word that media literacy is critical!  -------- 6. EMPOWER TEACHERS: When offering to collaborate and teach a lesson, you also want the teacher to be learning in case the following year you find yourself working with another teacher at the same time and unable to get to their class.  There also may be some teachers who like to stay in their own zone and do not want to co-teach. It takes time to figure out who those people may be. In those cases, I NOTICE & LISTEN and may create a LibGuide or simply email some resource ideas to help those teacher incorporate media literacy. -------- 7.  KEEP TRACK OF YOUR LESSONS - I do it through my blog. Find a way that works best for you and you will see your own media literacy scope and sequence evolve. Written by Kathleen Currie Smith HS Library Media Specialist Connecticut USA Shared by kind permission from an original post that can be found here Cover Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Y9 reading week – Summer Term 2019 ‘Moonrise’ by Sarah Crossan ‘A very quick read that will emotionally stick with you forever.’ Looking for a meaningful focus for the final week of the school year the Head of 3rd form proposed a ‘Reading Week’. This fitted perfectly with the whole school aim to encourage and promote more reading across all year groups and the Head of English and Library staff were keen to get involved and support this. We agreed that we liked the idea of all students reading the same book during the week with a part of each lesson (and possibly the whole lesson in some cases) dedicated to quiet individual reading – or reading aloud in groups of around the class. We invited teachers to bring classes to the library for a change of venue in a comfortable, informal environment. The tricky bit was deciding on a book. We agreed we wanted it to be fiction and preferably a shortish, accessible, recently published YA title with emphasis on the enjoyment of the reading experience and far removed from the feel of an English lesson ‘set text’. It was important that the book would draw in self-confessed ‘reluctant readers’ while at the same time being an enjoyable experience for keen readers. I read many YA books I’d been planning to read and English teachers recommended some of their favourites before eventually agreeing on ‘Moonrise’ by Sarah Crossan. Our Head of English raced to finish reading it and was very moved by it. We both agreed that the themes were thought-provoking and encouraged discussion of the issues of capital punishment and death row. The reading week was launched in a year group assembly and I introduced the book and gave a brief overview of the scenario and characters. We were delighted that Sarah Crossan sent us a witty video message which we played in the assembly and the students spontaneously applauded. As they left the assembly each student was given a copy of ‘Moonrise’ to read and keep. Any returned will be kept in the library as a loanable tutor group set. Feedback from teachers and students was very positive. The Head of Y10 is keen to run something similar for her year group at the end of the Summer Term next year and we will refine and develop this idea for Y9 next year.  I certainly enjoyed my time reading in the library surrounded by a class,  teacher and library staff all reading in companionable silence. It was lovely to see two girls come into the library to borrow more of Sarah’s books as they’d finished ‘Moonrise’ and wanted to read other similar books. By the end of the week all the library copies of Sarah Crossan’s books had been issued (to students and staff) and she rapidly became the 2nd most borrowed author of the year. We also had two visits from staff dogs to the library to keep the students company and ran book cover quizzes and book dingbats. So far my very brief questionnaire, sent out in the holidays has had 44 responses (out of a year group of 185). All of the respondents either finished reading the novel in school during the week or finished it in their free time afterwards. Only 1 student said they didn’t enjoy having time to read in lessons during the week. There were some very interesting and positive comments about the book: It was very sad, and made me reconsider my thoughts on the death penalty. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Moonrise and thought it was an excellent read!! It was really good I liked that it was written in verse as it was a nice change from other novels I have read. A very quick read that will emotionally stick with you forever. It was extremely good but had a very traumatic ending. I thought that the ending made the book more relatable. It’s awesome. I found it extremely eye-opening and heart wrenching. I always enjoy these books and the format is very effective at emphasising certain aspects of the story. Really clever the format in which the pages were written. I liked how the pages weren’t very long, meaning it was easy to read and you felt like you had made more progress in the book than you actually had. The writing style made the book quick and easy to read. The story builds up to a climax, ending very sadly. It made me think about what it would be like to be in a disjointed family. I found it hard to concentrate on the story line when all the pages were printed as poems on different lines. I asked the students to suggest a possible book for next year and these were there suggestions: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Blood Ties by Sophie Mackenzie Numbers by Rachel Ward After the Fire by Will Hill Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman Red Rising by Pierce Brown Release by Patrick Ness Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy Bodyguard by Chris Bradford Any Jodi Picoult I think a modern classic would be good so that classics can be gently introduced to get rid of any reticence to read them! Written by Lucy Atherton Head Librarian, The Mallinson Library Wellington College The original blog post can be found here.

My day starts early as I like to be at my desk by about 7.30am to go through my long list of emails, which seem to multiply like ants overnight. There are several from school librarians and teachers around the country via http://schoolslibraryservices.org requesting information on suitable Library Management Systems. SLS-UK and schools library services around the country don’t endorse a particular system so I send out details of different options for the schools to make their own choice. Cost and simplicity usually determine which system primary schools will choose “something that we can use for issuing and returning books”. Secondary schools usually want a more sophisticated option with more functionality but also a robust product that has a good help desk they can easily access when they have problems. I have received an email from a school we support with Pergamon LMS. They have just moved to the cloud-base version. The English coordinator wants me to print the class barcodes. Because access is now through a URL link I can do this work remotely from my desk in the office. I also tidied up their readers, removing students who had left. My team and I will also be able to catalogue the boxes of new books they have waiting to be added from our office and add teachers to the list of borrowers. Next week we are hosting an author event with Onjali Rauf, whose book, The Boy at the Back of the Class won our 2019 Redbridge Children’s Book Award. Because we have at least eleven schools and around 280 students wanting to attend, we’ve booked the local theatre for the morning. I send out booking forms, information and book-buying sheets for the teachers to fill in. This means we can prepare the books in advance, include post-it-notes of names so hopefully the book signing goes more efficiently and students aren’t disappointed. Several topic loan requests have been sent in to the SLS inbox from teachers who didn’t manage to submit them at the end of term or who have found they urgently need a particular class set. I select the books requested along with story sacks, photo packs and multi-media. My trusty team issue and box the loans ready for our library drivers to deliver. A teacher from one of the nearby High Schools calls to arrange a visit. He wants to borrow a couple of our Suitcases of History on World War 2 for an open evening. The school doesn’t subscribe but we agree a price. The suitcases are taken downstairs and loaded into his car and he has promised they will be returned next week. At four in the afternoon I’m due to do a webinar with a company in New York. They have a wonderful extension for chrome, firefox and IE called Newguard https://www.newsguardtech.com/, which is a free tool for assessing online sources and teaching fake news. It uses a simple traffic light system to rate each website. The company wants to make the documentation more UK friendly. Before lunch, I do a last minute check-through of my comments and make sure the headphones and microphone are working on my desktop. A school in a neighbouring borough has sent in a request via our SLS-UK website https://schoolslibraryservicesuk.org/school-library-award/ to do the SLS-UK School Library Award. The aims of the award are to: To accredit school libraries through a straightforward and cost-effective self-assessment process that is robust and equitable across the UK To recognise the work of library staff especially in designated library posts To highlight the work of school libraries and their staff in raising the educational achievement of children and young people To raise awareness of good school library provision in school communities and the profession locally and nationally. I send the librarian the relevant details and an application form and explain that it is an easy self-evaluation process that shouldn’t be too time consuming or difficult to complete. It would be good if more schools went through the process as it is an excellent tool for evaluating the school library to, either shout to the school SMT about how amazing the school library and school librarian are, or to use in a case for requesting more budget, help and recognition. The afternoon’s conversation with Newsguard goes well, despite IT letting me down. I don’t think our internet connection was up to a Webinar and we ended up working through the document via conference call. But all parties were happy with the outcome. Grabbing a quick cup of tea I change metaphorical hats from SLS manager to public librarian as on Tuesday evenings, I facilitate a creative writing group for adults in the SLS showroom. I’ve been doing this for about 12 years now and have a lovely group of diverse attendees who have fascinating stories and poems to tell about their lives and love having a quiet, safe space to express themselves on paper and in conversation. My day is finally over, the computer and lights are turned off and I leave to catch my bus home. Written by Nina Simon SLS Manager Redbridge Schools’ Library Service