School in Focus - celebrating success in schools
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Gryphon School and Sherborne Boys School |
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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.
One is a large mixed comprehensive formed from the amalgamation of three secondaries in 1992; the other a boarding school with daily chapel services and historic buildings dating back to the 705.
But in recent months they have formed a close working relationship — thanks to an inter-school reading campaign.
The scheme was initiated by the library staff at Gryphon and Sherborne, and developed with their colleagues at three other local schools; Penny Deacon at Sherborne School for Girls, Julie Kay at St Antony's Leweston and Pat Killoran at International College Sherborne.
Schools-based book club
The five-school partnership, which also involves the local public library in Sherborne, is supported by the National Literacy Trust's 'Read On' campaign, and is essentially a schools-based version of the 'book clubs' that have been formed by fiction-lovers across the country in recent years.
Vicky Clayton, senior librarian at Sherborne Boys School, says the key aim when the project was first discussed with colleagues, was to promote 'reading for leisure' — as she says, "anything from comic books to newspapers to the latest blockbuster by Dan Brown [author of bestseller The Da Vinci Code] is acceptable".
The idea was to take a different approach to that offered by the formal structure of the English curriculum.
Vicky says: "As librarians we can come at this from a different angle. I don't mind what they are reading — as long as they are enjoying reading. The idea is to get them hooked on books and then open them up to new things over time. You have to get down to the pupils' level and give them ownership over their reading choices."
Cost effective
Karen Horsfield, Learning Resource Centre manager at Gryphon, says the schools have required very little money to arrange events and carry out administration relating to the partnership.
"This is something that could be done anywhere with the minimum amount of funding. The most important thing is that you have a set of like-minded staff who 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.
Karen says: "The reading group at my school is made up of children from all years and all abilities. They probably wouldn't normally socialise, but they have been brought together through their love of reading."
"They have also been able to see that the boys from Sherborne — with whom there has been rivalry in the past — are actually just ordinary people like them. It has helped erase prejudice."
Forging links
The librarians also see 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.
In addition to the weekly book group sessions at each school, which usually takes place in the lunch hour, the librarians get together for regular partnership meetings. There are also occasional inter-school visits and events (for instance, a recent book quiz hosted by Sherborne Boys School).
Increasing membership
Once the Read On groups had been established in the schools, children were told that, while it was good to get together to read and discuss books, the other half of their challenge was to reach out to non-readers. Subsequent activities carried out by children such as 'you've seen the DVD, now read the book' displays and the setting up of comic libraries, have all helped in the process of recruiting new readers.
As a result, there are now 60-80 pupils involved in reading groups across the five schools, and more are joining all the time thanks to the proactive recruitment by existing members.
Positive results
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.
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.
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.
Staff say that his reading has taken off to such an extent that he is now hooked, which shows encouraging signs of progress. Even in the early stages, this gives staff the feeling that the whole project has been worthwhile.
As for the librarians themselves, the work of the partnership has raised awareness of their role in the school community. "I feel that in the last 12-18 months people are really beginning to understand our role and how we can fit into the school curriculum — we have skills that can be used across the board, not just for shuffling books," says Vicky.
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. They intend to use 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.
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