A Call To Arms For School Libraries?

 

This was not my planned topic of my first blog for 2024. I was talking to friends about New Year Resolutions and book reading targets so was going to write up a few tips about how you can achieve this. But you’ll have to wait for that because my social media has been full of talk about libraries.

First we had twelve Children’s Laurates teaming up with BookTrust to launch their “Reading Together, Changing Children’s Lives” campaign that aims to support families in the early stages of a children’s reading journey. This was followed by Philip Pullman, with the support of Michael Morpurgo and Julia Donaldson, calling on the government to legislate to “ensure all schools in Britain have libraries” and then there’s been Baroness Sanderson’s Review of Public Libraries. I guess I should also mention that the Ipsos Veracity Index has put the category of librarians back on the list, resulting in the profession being the third most trusted in Britain.

I love it when the media talk about libraries because it’s an opportunity for advocacy and there are always people who are astounded to discover that school libraries are not statutory. But all this has a slightly déjà vu feeling about it.

Over a decade ago, I organised a Mass Lobby in support of School Libraries; I learnt a lot about “green carding” MPs during this process! We had placards and T shirts, and marched from Victoria Embankment Gardens to Westminster. Leaflets had been printed explaining why school libraries were important and given out to passers-by, most of whom seemed quite amused by this large and loud group of librarians, although I should add that we weren’t all librarians – we had support from parents, students, authors and illustrators.

The result of this lobby was an APPG Libraries report “The Beating Heart of the School”, published in 2014 with four recommendations:

·         The Department for Education starts collecting figures about the number of schools that have a library and librarian

·         The Minister for Schools examines the full contribution that school libraries make to children's education and development

·          Ofsted includes libraries in their inspections

·         The Department for Education has a lead staff-member for school libraries

If these look familiar it’s probably because very similar recommendations have been made by both Michael Morpurgo and the Sanderson review. Time will tell if any recent recommendations are followed through but, suffice to say, that 2014 Report is still gathering dust somewhere  …

What’s interesting is that in all of this talk about libraries, librarians are rarely mentioned. Now, it may be that the assumption is they are automatically included when libraries are discussed but those of us who work in the school sector know this often isn’t the case and a look at the statistics around school libraries confirms this; the 2023 Great School Libraries (GSL) Campaign report shows that 58% of schools (both primary and secondary) don’t have designated library staff. 

This doesn’t give the whole picture though because “designated library staff” could simply mean somebody assigned for a few hours a week.

I could regal you with horror stories about libraries I’ve visited that are run by volunteers or staff whose main role in the school is not being the librarian so this doesn’t get priority and they often “lose” this time to other tasks. The result is frequently libraries where inappropriate books have been put on the shelves (this regularly happens when a popular children’s author writes a YA or adult book and the person choosing the stock has limited book knowledge); where the majority of the fiction has been written by dead white men; libraries full of books that haven’t been labelled in any way so that picture books are mixed up with chapter books and information books; and libraries where the only supplier used was an Usborne rep so that’s all you’ve got on the shelves (I should say here that I love Usborne books but a library should have a range of publishers amongst their resources).

All this happens because the person responsible for the library does not have the relevant skills or experience, ie: they are not a librarian. You need a librarian to turn a room of books into a library, the same way you need an instructor to turn a room full of bikes into a spin class. You don’t have to take my word for this. There is a growing body of international research-based evidence that shows the impact of having a school librarian - some examples include:

·         A Pennsylvania study showed that  schools that had a full-time librarian, reading scores were consistently better for all students

·         An Australian report found that having a qualified librarian improved student literacy outcomes with up to two month’s learning gain

·         An HMI Ofsted report found that “well-trained specialist librarians had a positive effect on teaching and learning”

·         Research from New Zealand shows evidence that school libraries and library staff have a positive impact on student achievement

·         Scottish Book Trust research indicates that school libraries and librarians have value beyond academic achievement

Experienced and trained librarians bring so much more to a school library and its community. They are not simply curators of books or supervisors of the space; they manage a range of resources (hard copy and online) to meet curriculum and teaching needs of students and staff; they support learning to read, reading improvement, reading for information and reading for pleasure; they help students find relevant resources for educational and personal needs; they deliver information and digital literacy skills teaching; they promote the library resources and services throughout the school community; they engender a range of inclusive activities and events; and they provide a safe and welcoming space.

As I said in a guest blog for BookTrust last year, you can create a wonderful library space full of books but it needs a librarian – to plan and implement strategies and actions that link to school community needs – otherwise it is likely to become a rather tired-looking and muddled room. I know school budgets are at breaking point but you will not get the full package, the full benefits or full value-for-money from your library without a librarian. 

 

Ofsted report: "Now the Whole School is Reading" - what does it tell us?

Last month (October 2022) Ofsted published a report titled “Now the whole school is reading”: supporting struggling readers in secondary school. I was immediately intrigued as to what their guidance suggested and it makes interesting reading as, for once, it mentions school librarians! Those who regularly read such reports will know that libraries rarely feature in them, even when the subject is relevant.

The findings are based on research visits to six secondary schools. The schools were selected as they had a higher-than-expected proportion of students who were poor readers get grade 4 or above in English GCSE. Evidence used included:

·         Research literature

·         Autumn term 2021 inspection data

·         Discussions with English specialist inspectors

·         Discussions with staff and students at the six schools

The executive summary states that the ability to read is “a fundamental life skill. It is essential to us all if we are to participate fully in society”. This should be obvious to anyone; without the ability to read, students are unable to succeed in exams and move into further education or training, and thus into employment. This has a lifelong impact. It also highlighted the fact that students who arrive in secondary school with poor reading skills are unlikely to catch up; only 10% of disadvantaged children who leave primary school reading below the expected level get passes in GCSE English and Maths.

The summary also makes a statement about those who are poor readers reading less. Reading is a skill and needs to be practiced but if you don’t like doing something and struggle at it, you tend not to choose to do it – I don’t like running so don’t choose to do it in my free time, even though the experts tell me it’s good for me, it fits into my schedule and is cheap! Studies show that reading increases vocabulary and general knowledge; clearly reading non-fiction will do this but it’s also amazing what you can learn from reading stories so students who are not reading won’t have those advantages and are likely to struggle with comprehension as they come across more advanced texts. This is why, as librarians, we try and get students to move out of their comfort zone and read a book that may be more challenging; reading the same story over and over again isn’t going to introduce new vocabulary, facts or ideas.

So what are the main findings of the report and how can we use these to provide a better service for our school communities?

·         Senior leaders prioritised reading.
This should come as no surprise; for most initiatives to be successful they need the support of the Senior Management Team (SMT aka SLT). In the schools visited, there were whole school reading strategies that were part of the curriculum and the SMT shared their commitment thus increasing the visibility of reading across the school. It is important that librarians are involved in this and have input into any reading policies and tactics – they are a natural fit. Are you part of the planning group for whole school reading? Are your SMT aware of your lessons and activities around improving students’ reading skills and the impact these have? Do you feedback any relevant information about students and reading to staff?

·         Schools accurately identified gaps in students’ reading knowledge and shared information about struggling readers with all staff.
There are various reasons why students may be poor readers. Diagnostic testing will ascertain whether this is due to fluency rates, word reading and accuracy, or phonic knowledge thus enabling bespoke interventions. Sharing this information enabled a consistent approach throughout all lessons – and this should extend to library lessons. We can’t provide consistency if we’re not given relevant information that enables us to  support individual students – remember, one size doesn’t fit all and the more we know about why students are struggling with reading, the more we can help them.

·         Staff who taught reading had the expertise they needed to teach weaker readers.
The featured schools trained staff who would be working with struggling readers so they had relevant expertise. These staff disseminated that training to others within the school. If your school is investing in such training then it’s essential that you, as the librarian, are involved as it’s likely you will be working with the weaker readers – it’s surprising how much teaching school librarians do, something that many people don’t realise.

·         Schools had clear procedures in place to monitor this teaching and its impact on struggling readers.
By regularly assessing the progress of students, the effectiveness of any strategies could be ascertained and adjustments/changes made. This is so important; there’s no point in carrying on with something if it’s not working and any library programmes need to be included in this assessment. Do you monitor the success of your library activities? Do you report back to SMT what’s successful and why? This can help them make informed choices regarding future strategies.

A few other things jumped out at me from this report.

The first was that schools tended to stop additional support with reading once students reached Year 9 or moved into KS4. None of the schools monitored progress beyond this. I know this is probably due to time, budgets and the introduction of the very full GCSE curriculum but it’s such a shame. It meant that the schools had no idea whether students still struggled with reading – though I guess ultimately their exam results may show this – or the long-term impact of previous interventions. As some students remarked that they “felt less enthusiastic and motivated to read for pleasure by the time they reached key stage 4” there is clearly a huge role for the school librarian here. However, the caveat is that students need time to access appropriate resources and the library needs to consider promotional material and activities aimed at this target group. I know from my involvement with the UK Pupil Library Assistant of the Year the impact the library can have on older students, not only with their continuing reading for pleasure but also by providing a space for their good mental health and wellbeing.

Secondly, the report recognised the importance of skilled librarians. Not simply staff running the library and keeping it tidy but professionals who were able to be part of the whole school reading initiatives and play an active role - three of the six schools had at least one professionally qualified librarian. CILIP, the library and information association, offers librarians the opportunity to obtain professional qualifications and has a special interest group for school librarians (SLG) with resources and support available for those that wish to explore this further.

Finally, whilst there is plenty of research into primary reading there is little undertaken with older students and most of that is outside the UK. This is an area that needs to be addressed given how a lack of reading skills can impede older students’ life choices.

  

 

The Necessity of Life - the benefits of reading

I recently gave a presentation, entitled “The Necessity of Life” to the CILIP YLG South East Unconference in which I spoke about reading and its many benefits: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8FBwOgn-Y-8V0lNWUlMSnh5dFU/edit?usp=sharing

To me, reading is as essential as breathing and an immensely pleasurable activity. I have always been an avid reader, one of those people who, if they don’t have a book or magazine (which is rare) will read anything: that abandoned newspaper on the underground, adverts, cereal packets – and it’s hard to explain to a non-reader quite how wonderful it is. That feeling of settling down with the latest title from a favourite author, the thrill of opening a new book that you’ve been looking forward to reading, the way you get immersed in the story, the way it takes over your brain so that all you want to do is carrying on reading to find out what happens next …

Reading is also a basic life skill. It is needed for education, employment, to be able to become an active, involved member of society - without a basic literacy level you are excluded, on the outside and not able to participate in so many things – and research has shown that reading increases literacy. And surely reading needs access to books (or a source of reading material – I use the term “books” generically) and books equals libraries. Yet this reason doesn’t seem to be a good enough argument for keeping libraries, and therefore access to reading material, open.

So what about the other benefits of reading? Below are links to those I mentioned in my presentation and more … I only had about 45 minutes and there were far too many for me to use them all, you could spend the whole day researching and investigating this topic – but if you need evidence, then it’s here.

 

·         Interesting article on reading facts from The Reading Agency: http://readingagency.org.uk/news/reading-facts003/

·         National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, DCMS, 2011: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/77395/Taking_Part_Y6_Release.pdf

·         Children who read for pleasure do better at school: http://www.ioe.ac.uk/newsEvents/89938.html

·         Literacy levels of adults (16 – 65): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24433320 and if you want to read the whole document: http://skills.oecd.org/OECD_Skills_Outlook_2013.pdf

·         Deep reading (as opposed to superficial reading such as we do on the internet) exercises the brain and increases capacity for empathy: http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/

·         Benefits of reading every day: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/12/health-benefits-reading_n_4081258.html and  http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-reading-why-you-should-read-everyday.html

·         Reduces stress: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html

·         Preserves memory: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130704094454.htm

·         Reduces risk of dementia: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-03-05-alzheimers-hobbies.htm and http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022252#t=article

·         Can help with depression: http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f540

·         Reading books is only out of school activity linked to getting managerial or professional job: http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/110804.html