VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
Making your library an enticing place to be
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n this month’s View from the Classroom feature, Librarian at both Steyning C of E Primary School and Swiss Gardens Primary School, Leia Sands, tells Education Today why school libraries are so important, and what can be done to ensure pupils enjoy spending their time there.
Tell us about your school?
Steyning C of E Primary School is a primary school located in Steyning, West Sussex. It currently has 342 students on roll, aged 4 to 11. The school is a two form entry school with an attached special support centre for 10 children with speech and language needs. The school has 18% of children on the SEND register and 13% Pupil Premium pupils.
At Steyning, our vision for the school is to become synonymous with educational excellence by building an inclusive Christian community based on ‘love’ where everyone feels valued, safe and supported, empowered to change their own lives and the lives of those around them, and to be able to stand up and become responsible members of the community.
How important do you think a school library is?
A school library is so much more than a place to pick a book; a well-used school library can help
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general academic attainment, wellbeing and reading and writing skills. Our library is at the heart of school life and well-used by the whole school community.
How important is it to have your teachers on board?
It’s so important. I champion reading and the school library all the time. We start our staff meetings with teachers sharing their book recommendations, we have a staff WhatsApp group, Book Buzz, where we share children’s literature that we are reading and I encourage all adults to follow authors on social media, attend author visits and participate in initiatives like the Reading Agency and Open University’s Teaching Reading Challenge, especially over the school holidays when they may have more time to read. It’s also important for our children to see teachers as readers. We have a weekly assembly dedicated to reading and our children take an active role in these. We have ‘Books that made me a reader’ segments where children interview a member of staff to find out their current and childhood favourites.
Is it key to involve your pupils? Yes! To make the library an enticing place, we need to involve our pupils. We need it to be a space which they want to use and visit.
December 2024
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