Schools-based book club – boosting citizenship by forming links
At first glance, there might seem to be little in common between The Gryphon CofE School and Sherborne Boys School, aside from their location in rural west Dorset. But in recent months they have formed a close working relationship - thanks to an inter-school reading campaign initiated by the library staff at Gryphon and Sherborne and developed with their colleagues at three other local schools.
- Organisation Name:
- The Gryphon School and Sherborne Boys School
- Region:
- South East
- Topic:
- Links with other schools
- Type of Organisation:
- Secondary school
Brief description of the project
Library staff at Gryphon CofE School and Sherborne Boys School have formed a close working relationship whilst initiating an inter-school reading campaign developed in conjunction with colleagues at three other local schools, Sherborne School for Girls, St Antony’s Leweston and International College Sherborne.
The five-school partnership, which also involves the local public library in Sherborne and support from the National Literacy Trust’s ‘Read On’ campaign, is essentially a schools-based version of the ‘book clubs’ that have been formed by fiction-lovers across the country in recent years.
The key aim, when the project was first discussed, was to promote ‘reading for leisure’ and to take a different approach to that offered by the formal structure of the English curriculum.
This meant, in principle, that pupils were encouraged to read anything from comic books to newspapers to the latest blockbuster by Dan Brown (author of bestseller The Da Vinci Code), with the long-term objective of getting them to enjoy their reading. Through giving the children ownership over what they are reading it then became easier to open them up to new things.
Once the Read On groups were established in the schools, the children were then told that while it was good to get together to read and discuss books, the other half of the challenge was to reach out to non-readers.
This has been achieved by encouraging members of the group to recruit new readers through different activities, such as producing ‘you’ve seen the DVD, now read the book’ displays and setting up comic libraries. Through theses activities the librarians have tried to feed their individual schools with ideas on how to encourage reading and then share the results with the other librarians to find out what works best.
In addition to the weekly book group sessions at each school, which usually take place in the lunch hour, the librarians get together for regular partnership meetings. There are also occasional inter-school visits and events such as book quizzes.
The librarians also saw the partnership as an opportunity to boost citizenship skills – by encouraging state and independent school pupils to form links with peers in different settings.
Furthermore, the partnership was seized on as a way of raising the profile of library staff in schools and developing a local network of professional librarians to share ideas and information.
Outcomes of the project
There are now 60-80 pupils involved in reading groups across the five schools, and more are joining all the time thanks to proactive recruitment by existing members.
The reading groups are made up of children from all years and all abilities who probably wouldn’t normally socialise, but they have been brought together through their love of reading.
Pupils are also benefiting. It is too early to measure the effect on results, but a highlight so far would be the example of one boy with dyslexia who asked to join the reading group.
His reading has now taken off to such a degree that he is hooked - a sign of the progress that has been made even in these early stages and that makes all those concerned feel the project has been worthwhile.
The feedback from teaching staff - who have seen the cross-curricular benefit of pupils’ enthusiasm for reading in English, History, Drama and Citizenship – has been positive.
The librarians themselves believe that the work of the partnership has raised awareness of their role in the school community and feel that in the last 12-18 months people are really beginning to understand their roles and how they can fit into the school curriculum.
Resources and staffing
The schools participating in the project have required very little money to arrange events and carry out administration relating to the partnership.
The senior librarians at each school required about half a day per week for administration duties and one lunchtime per week for reading club sessions. The occasional evening was also put aside for partnership meetings and inter-school activities. The most important aspect is that you have a set of like-minded staff that are all willing to contribute equally to the partnership.
The extra hours that the library staff devote to the project are more than worthwhile because of the impact it has had on children’s enjoyment of books and their citizenship skills.
Despite the minimal budget used to set up the partnership - which had been evolving for more than a year before it was formally launched in February 2005 – the early signs are that it has succeeded in all its aims.
Challenges
The main challenge experienced by those involved with the reading club has been completing paperwork in order to take the children to other schools for inter-school meetings.
Lessons learnt
Ideally, the partnership should eventually become self-funding through grants, fundraising and support from local businesses. This is important because if the partnership continues to rely on school budgets there is a possibility that one school might not be able to contribute as much as the others. It is important to ensure that everyone feels they have an equal stake.
What's next?
Now, buoyed by the success of the recent launch – where book club members entertained their peers with cross-curricular presentations, readings and performances – the Sherborne ‘Read On’ partnership is planning ways of taking the campaign forward, using the reading groups as a focus group for the public library’s teenage provision, as well as training up childcare and other students to help run the library’s storytelling session for under fives.
Context
Lead schools involved in the project, Gryphon School and Sherborne Boys School, have very different settings. Gryphon is a modern mixed comprehensive school with a sixth form, where as Sherborne Boys School is an independent boarding school set in historical buildings dating back to 705.