What keeps me awake at night - It may be libraries' final chapter
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5 average rating | Comments (1)
Last Updated:
18 August, 2012
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opinion
I was saddened recently when one of my teaching assistants told me she was being made redundant from her part-time job at the local library. It is a shame for her, of course, but also for the school to be losing this link to our library.
Promoting a love of reading is one of the most important things a teacher can do. What infuriates me are the barriers to developing that love: the threat of library closures and an apparent obsession with the teaching of phonics as the sole strategy to give our children reading skills.
The local library is the most fantastic resource for enabling children to immerse themselves in books of all kinds. We are all guilty of ignoring this resource - parents who never get round to taking their children and schools that don't encourage regular visits by local librarians. Schools library services, where they survive, can also be woefully neglected - loans, library audits, suggested reading lists, projects and awards are all ready to be used but too often aren't.
My school recently held an assembly at which the schools library service, ably supported by some enthusiastic Year 6 readers, promoted the annual Summer Reading Challenge, which is organised by national charity, The Reading Agency. The assembly was watched by schools minister Nick Gibb, who appeared to be impressed by pupils' explanations of why they love reading and their ability to identify books from short extracts that were read aloud.
We started our assembly with a group of pupils reading while others exercised behind them. It might sound strange, but this was our attempt to demonstrate what Sir Richard Steele, the 17th-century Irish writer and politician, famously said: "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
If you stop exercising you become sluggish and unfit. For many pupils, the long summer holidays mean exactly that for their reading. Too many are not directed to read by their school or parents and sadly don't choose to read for pleasure.
Teachers need to work with libraries to keep pupils reading through school holidays. It is important to reward children when they come back to school and to get them talking about what they have read. Then we may have children with minds alert and buzzing, ready to take on learning.
The writer is a headteacher of a primary school in West Sussex. To tell us what keeps you awake at night, email david.marley@tes.co.uk.
Comment (1)
Thank you to that wise headteacher who recognises the value of libraries and the very real danger we are in of losing this vital service. The support given to schools by the Schools Library Services is invaluable but sadly, as the writer states, often neglected and undervalued. The Richard Steele quote is one of my personal favourites. The current educational conversation is, rightly, concentrating on the importance of sport following a successful Olympics. However, as the quote says, our children need to exercise their minds just as much. Research has shown that reading for pleasure is a better indicator of academic success than wealth or social class (OECD 2002).
In this age when we are losing these external services, it is even more important that every school, both primary and secondary has a good school library and someone whose role it is to enthuse and encourage children to gain a lifelong reading habit. Many children lose this habit when they start secondary school after the long summer break and the school librarian is ideally placed to be that person.
On Monday 29th October a Mass Lobby of Parliament in support of school libraries will take place. Librarians, teachers, parents, students and many other interested parties will march on the House of Commons and then meet with individual MPs to encourage them to support the case for the recognition of the vital role of school libraries. The more people who support this, either by attending the lobby, or by writing to their MP the better. This is everyone's problem - not just the schools'. If anyone would like to help the group has a Facebook page and all support will be very welcome (http://www.facebook.com/groups/207318732723647/).
Sue Bastone, MCLIP
Head of Learning Resources
LVS Ascot.
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18 August, 2012
suebastone