A whole-school approach to reading for pleasure

School librarian Rhiannon Cook aims for a whole school approach to information literacy and reading for pleasure. Here, she tells us how that ambition has helped her achieve a borrowing rate of at least 75% of their pupils.

Q: What was your route into becoming a school librarian? A: My undergraduate degree was American and English Literature at University of East Anglia and while studying, I volunteered in a local school as a reading partner. I had done some work experience in a school previously and I knew I liked working with children but wasn't sure I wanted to train as a teacher. I worked in retail for a number of years building confidence and then finally got a job working in Norwich Millennium Library - the busiest library in the UK at the time. One of my favourite aspects of working in a public library was planning and delivering events for children and eventually I decided I wanted to do a masters in Librarianship, which I completed at Sheffield University 2012-2013, I even won an award for my dissertation on anti-social behaviour in public libraries! As I learned about options available to me as a Librarian, it became clearer every day that I was meant to work as a children's librarian and towards the end of my year in Sheffield, I was browsing jobs on LISJobs.net and I spotted an advert for a Library Assistant at St Aubyn's School in Woodford Green, which seemed like a perfect entry-level position in a school. From there I became Assistant Librarian and, last year, Librarian. There couldn't be a more perfect job for me. Q: Where are you now? A: I am the school librarian at St Aubyn's School, a co-educational independent school for 500 children aged 3 to 13. The library is the heart of the school and I never get tired of seeing people's eyes light up when they walk through the doors for the first time. Q: How would you describe your library and your relationship with the students? A: Extremely busy! As well as myself, there is a library assistant, a year 8 young manager and five library monitors from year 6. We see all classes from nursery to year 5 every week and senior school in rotation. Middle school have taught library skills lessons - one year group per term - and all other classes use their library time to choose books and enjoy the space. We read stories to early years and pre prep pupils and at the end of each half term we do an activity linked to a book to further encourage reading for pleasure. Middle and senior pupils have a lunchtime rota, we are open before school every day for parents to visit with pre prep children and we are open after school on a Monday and Friday for parents and pupils to share a story, do some homework or raise any queries with staff. That's just an overview! Increasingly, I am finding more of a pastoral element to my role. Exam stress, friendships, social media and an increasingly complex world can take its toll on children of all ages. The library is a safe space and staff can be seen as more approachable so it often becomes a refuge for pupils having a tough time. That said, it is mostly a joyful, welcoming place where a love of books is clear for all to see. Q: And how would you describe your approach - in one sentence? A: Whole school engagement in information literacy and reading for pleasure with an exceedingly jolly attitude. Q: What would you say have been your biggest successes and innovations to date? A: I was incredibly lucky in that the library was already well established and in excellent hands when I started. Footfall and borrowing figures have always been incredibly healthy and the timetable already in place. However, revitalising the early years and pre prep resources was a huge mission of mine when I first started at St Aubyn's as that was a particular strength for me. I also set up the library home visitor programme with years 1 and 2 to engage pupils and their families at home with reading and bedtime stories. One pupil every week in each class takes home a library puppet and a diary in a bag, reads a bedtime story, takes a photo and writes a diary entry to be shared in class the following week. This programme has been incredibly popular amongst our students and very successful. I have also built up a diverse collection of graphic novels and manga. As a visual learner myself, I think it is incredibly important to have a good range of comics and actually run Drawing Comics Club after school once a week which still has a waiting list! The library monitor scheme was something the previous Librarian suggested I instigate in my second year but since then it has evolved massively. It really builds confidence in our pupils as well as teaching them responsibility and diverse skills. We had our very first library monitor's Christmas party this year with hot chocolates, snacks, Christmas music, fingerprint card making (and books as presents of course) as a reward for all of their hard work. They were thrilled. Q: And what are the biggest challenges for you? A: St Aubyn's offers a multitude of opportunities for pupils and the timetable is always a delicate balance, especially when scheduling author visits and other library events! Good communication with all staff members is key. Additionally, finding time for all of the aspects of the role of Librarian - teaching, managing, taking care of pastoral needs, administration - can be tricky. However, taking a moment to stop, reflect and adapt where necessary works wonders. Q: What are your school's priorities for the library? A: To continue the good work. We are trusted to innovate and develop as we see fit and our enthusiasm is reflected in our success. Q: How do you support other teachers and teaching across the curriculum? A: The Library is heavily involved in the daily life of the school and as we see the majority of teachers at least once a week, we are often consulted on a variety of queries. We are often called upon to organise book boxes for classes/year groups relating to topics of study or certain themes. These range from information texts, to poetry, to short stories, picture books or a combination of things and I am often in touch with members on staff as to what resources they may need in the future. Teachers will often ask for recommendations for class reads, audio books to listen to while art projects are being undertaken or support and suggestions for particularly reluctant readers, SEN or EAL students or those lacking in confidence. We also provide a range of staff resources for continuing professional development which we try to keep as up-to-date as possible. Each year we work with middle school teachers to run a Reading Partners programme with year 5 pupils supporting year 3 pupils with their reading once a week. We also help engage a small group of year 5 students with books during dedicated Literacy Circle sessions. I am particularly fond of these programmes as they empower the children in selecting their own reading material, taking control of the situation and therefore making them more enthusiastic about how they encounter books. As part of our taught library lessons, pupils are given an excellent grounding in information literacy but we will also create stand-alone sessions on request if given plenty of time to prepare. For example, next term I will be delivering some sessions on skimming and scanning to complement a project that year 4 will be working on and Mrs. Anthony will be discussing themes from history with our senior school students to provide context to literature they are studying in their English lessons. I like to think we support the emotional needs of staff just as much as we support the needs of the children. It is considered a welcoming space across the school and staff often express a love of the library which can often provide a much needed break from the class room. Q: What are your budgeting priorities and how creative do you need to be with your funds? A: The library budget is a healthy one and we are very fortunate in that respect. Our main priority is keeping our stock relevant and so we frequently buy new books and weed out the old. This is especially important in the case of non-fiction which is constantly being updated and anything over ten years old is widely believed to be redundant. Additionally, a large part of our yearly budget will be spent on reading for pleasure events because nothing engages children more than meeting the poets, storytellers, authors and illustrators in the flesh. Q: How are you using technology in the library? A: We had an ebook platform for a number of years which we rolled out to parents, pupils and staff but no one really used it. Everyone prefers to physically visit the library, talk to myself, Mrs. Anthony our library assistant and even the library monitors for recommendations and advice on our resources. We see this as a massive compliment. We do have a library Twitter account where we post library news, book recommendations, display ideas and such but more importantly, we have The Twitter Box. Its just a cardboard box that I covered in blue paper and stuck Twitter symbols on but pupils can post burning questions they have for authors in there and I Tweet them under the hash tag #askanauthor. We dont always get replies - which is understandable and the students know that authors and illustrators are very busy people - but when we do they are always over the moon and it definitely impacts their reading positively. I have plans to expand this idea into formal Twitter chats with particular authors and illustrators and will be talking to our ICT department about the practicalities of skype sessions with authors for the future. Google Drive is a useful tool for creating surveys to provide helpful feedback to improve upon things. I have sent out surveys to parents for feedback on a reading for pleasure event which will contribute to future opportunities. We also sent a survey to staff about the usage of current resources and improvements they would like to see in that section. As a result, we will be organising a visit from the Brown's Book Bus in September to involve staff in the process. Canva is an invaluable website I use to create slideshows, display and promotional materials. It has some paid elements but is largely free and very professional. The library also subscribes to Britannica and has a set of six desktop PCs and a class set of laptops we use to access it. This is especially useful in taught library lessons like our research project in year 5 or our introduction to the library catalogue sessions in year 3. Q: What next for your library? A: This year we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the library being opened. We had a whole week of author visits, competitions, activities and a celebration for staff. I also have my sights set on transforming a forgotten corner of the library into a brand new oversize book collection area with a large table top book stand to properly display all new items. There are some marvellous oversize books available at the moment and I'm very excited about the possibilities of a brand new area. There are always plenty of ideas for the future! Q: Can you share three simple things you have tried out that you'd recommend to other librarians? A: One of the first things I set up in the library was the book suggestion box. This is a cardboard box covered in bright fabric with a hole in the top. Next to that are paper slips that ask for the pupil's name, class and the title and author of the book they would like to request. As a librarian I try to buy books that will entertain, interest and inform all of the children in our school as well as support the curriculum, however, it is equally important to have the input from the children as to what they would like to read. They're the main customers after all! The Reading Agency creates excellent reading challenges to keep children engaged over the summer and now, also the winter! Keep that enthusiasm going during the school term by organising your own reading challenge! Last year I introduced the Genre Reading challenge to middle school which involved collecting Scout/Guide-like badges for reading different type of genre which really fired up our pupils' imaginations. This year I decided to mix things up with a Non-fiction Reading Challenge which includes practical challenges. Our reading challenges feature all sorts of activities in the library to keep pupils engaged and lots of house points on offer as well as final certificates. They are a great way to promote reading and encouraging students to read outside their comfort zone while also having fun. Challenge yourself to try new things. When I was in school, the way we studied poetry was to analyse it until all pleasure in the form was lost. Being in a school environment, I want children to enjoy all reading so I challenged myself to become an advocate for poetry. I started following lots of children's poets on Twitter, read out poems I liked to classes instead of or as well as a story, showed videos of poets performing their work on the smart board and got the children to join in and created book week poetry activities and competitions. I also try to invite at least one poet per year to perform in our school. Now children come into the library with their parents and show them the poetry section, borrow the books and say things like "Miss Cook LOVES poetry" and this makes me incredibly proud. Q: What's the one thing you do that has the most impact, and how do you know? A: I think the popularity of the library speaks for itself. Our borrowing average is rarely lower than 75% and even if pupils aren't borrowing a book they are using the space, talking to us about what they are reading, enjoying reading for pleasure events and reflecting back the positive attitude towards reading that we give out every day. It's a difficult one to measure but having a positive attitude towards reading and in general is key. Pupils reflect back what you give out every day and if you are enthusiastically talking to them about what they are reading, welcoming them into the space - whether they are borrowing a book or not at that moment in time - or gushing excitedly over an author/illustrator/poet/storyteller's visit, it's infectious. The popularity of our library is one indication of this and the percentage of pupils borrowing resources is rarely lower than 75% so we must be doing something right! Q: How does being a member of the School Library Association helped you? A: Being a member of the SLA has benefitted me particularly in terms of training opportunities. Attending the SLA Weekend Conference in 2017 was especially valuable as a learning experience and making links with the school library community. There is a wealth of inspiration and support out there.