Libraries and Learning: London and South East YLG One Day
School (3rd July 2001)
The day began with:
Libraries and Out of Hours Learning
There are opportunities for learning everywhere — our role
is to enable children to actively find and use them. This was
the message from Tony Kirwan, part author of "Extending Opportunity:
a National framework for Study Support" (worth a read!).
Some thought-provoking facts Tony presented:
15% of a child’s week is spent in school, 85% outside and
the best school only does 15% better than the worst one. We make
a difference!
The impact of study support was found to be threefold:
- Improvement of 3.5 grades at GCSE leve
- Increased attendance at school
- Increased self esteem in young people
Study support provided a re-framing experience — "I
can learn". This was because of the following key elements:
- Friends are present
- Resources available
- Responsibility
- Voluntary attendance
- A relaxed atmosphere.
Study support is learning, not teaching - everyone has different
learning styles, which teachers haven’t always the time to
notice and/or accommodate.
Study support is important for the DfES because:
- Underachieving schools and pupils are still a concern
- It provides the skills for life-long learning
- Social Inclusion
- Schools alone cannot educate
- Money is out there waiting for libraries! Funds available,
some only regionally and some more generally, are:
- Pupil Learning Credits
- NOF
- Standards Fund
- Neighbourhood Support Fund
- SRB
- Excellence in Cities/ Education Action Zone Grants
Implications for Libraries are that heads control a lot of the
money — be nice to the "ring-leaders"! Managing
projects at boundaries of interlocking initiatives is hard, and
getting information from schools even harder! Also most libraries
are not as exciting as Highbury or Selhurst Park — think
laterally about what "turns kids on" ("Playing
for Success" is a network of homework clubs within football
clubs and is phenomenally successful — and not even anything
to do with football!).
Tony asked us to think about these questions:
- What is our unique contribution as a library?
- What is the full range of learning experiences you can get
from a library?
- What partners can libraries work with to provide re-framing
learning experiences (and make imaginative approaches to schools
for money).
The next session was:
Evaluating and Monitoring Websites, Anne Sparrowhawk (TEEM: Teachers
Evaluating Educational Multimedia)
This was a very interesting session, which upset most of the
librarians present! TEEM is a collective of teachers who evaluate
websites and CD-Roms for use with classes of children — and
thus librarian reviews are not eligible for inclusion. The reviews
covered such things as age appropriateness, layout, appeal to
different learning styles and ease of use. Most reviews also have
a case study, and all have technical specification. We spent some
time examining a really awful site — and were then told it
was DfES funded! The website is very useful to all children’s
librarians and is to be found at: www.teem.org.uk.
Before lunch we tackled:
Early Learning Goals with Sally Saunders (Greenwich)
Libraries must put themselves into a key position by joining
their local early years partnership. This was Sally’s key
message and her session then asked us to think how we could address
some of the goals individually. Our group was given the moral
development aim, so we came up with concepts of sharing (eg books!!),
display of "rude books" (eg I want my Dinner, Rude Rabbit
etc.) and having a behaviour "charter" for children
and staff on display.
Sally also recommended cribbing ideas from
www.teachingideas.co.uk,
and putting definitions of terms on big notices on the wall (eg
Internet, ISP etc.). She praised Hillingdon’s website as
being particularly good for children, and Richmond’s for
allowing emailed enquiries.
After lunch we shaped up for:
Silence. Science in the Library with David Paynter (Kent)
David won an entrepreneur of the year award several years ago
for promoting science in libraries. He was keen to "redress
the balance" in terms of arts representation, and appeal
to different groups (boys!) by making science fun for everyone.
His top tips for science projects were to think of local links
(eg scientists born in the borough) and involve any local industry
who will look favourably on providing sponsorship. David claims
there are lots of grants out there for the National Year of Science,
and promoting science generally.
Next came:
Educating Children Out of School with Jane Lowe (Home
Education Advisory Service)
Generally the public know little about home education, and these
children are not necessarily marginalized. There are many different
reasons for educating at home:
- Philosophical Reasons
- Religious
- Alternative lifestyle
- Concern over moral and social attitudes in school
- Feeling a child is too young to go
- Enjoy home-educating
- Individualised learning (pace and interests)
- Benefits of being able to question
- To be with siblings
- Problems
- School phobia
- Bullying
- Too far from suitable school
- Special educational needs not met
- Parents travel abroad a lot
- Gifted child
- Child often ill and unable to attend
Janet’s biggest plea from her parents was that libraries
should not automatically think "truant" if a child was
in the library in term-time.
As a reward, we were then treated to some "Brain Surgery
for Beginners" with Nick Arnold which was Fantastic —
and surprisingly un-messy!! I would recommend him to host any
event — and horrify and fascinate in equal measure.
Overall the day provided some useful feedback on the state of
study support today, and some ideas for the future. Another successful
YLG event then!
Alison Forrest Publicity Officer, YLG London & South
East
More YLG News
Meet the Commitee On being
an Eastern Branch Rep!
Bookstart and Beyond
YLG SW training day
Yorkshire and Humber YLG
Chair's Report
UmbrelLA6 YLG Rep's
report
Read On – Write Away!
Carol Taylor
Banquet of Reading
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