Advocacy - Primary School Case Study

Background

Primrose Hill JI is a large inner city primary school. The headteacher has been in post 12 months and has recently appointed a new literacy co-ordinator. This position is currently a floating post and the literacy co-ordinator has been asked to assess the quality and organisation of the school's library resources. A recent OFSTED inspection highlighted the underuse of the school library and failure to develop pupils' independent learning skills. As a result development of the library is now a high priority in the SIP. Improved ICT provision is also a priority and computerisation of the library is being considered using e-credits to purchase the library management system.

Process

• Headteacher and literacy co-ordinator agreed their vision of what a good school library should be. ( Both had had good experiences at their previous schools.) They decided to conduct an Advocacy campaign within the school community.
• Decision taken to share this 'vision' with:
  i) Staff - in order to reinforce the benefits of using the library with their pupils.
  ii) Governors - to put case for increased level of funding to support the development of the library.
• Literacy co-ordinator drafted a briefing sheet to outline:
  i)   Role and purpose of a good school library.
  ii)  Brief description of what the library will look like and contain.
  iii) How the library will be used.
  iv) Overview of skills that pupils will need in order to access information.
  v)  Further potential to develop ICT skills ( if library computerised.)
  vi) Expected benefits in terms of raising literacy standards ( i.e. reading levels, attitudes to reading and information handling skills.)  

Evidence gathering / Expected outcomes

Headteacher decided briefing must contain 'hard' evidence of how a good school library can impact on pupils' learning, in order to justify the projected expenditure for improving library provision. A second staff meeting was used to draft agreed targets ( in terms of increased use of the library, raised standards in information handling, and increased wider reading for pleasure by pupils of all levels.)

• Schools Library Service was called in to give a professional assessment of the current state of the library and to assist in the process of drafting a library development plan.
• CILIP Primary School Library Guidelines were used to:
  i)   provide inspirational mission statements.
  ii)  establish a realistic stock size and annual budget.
  iii) give professional credence to 'vision.'
• SLA Guideline -  'Measuring Success: How effective is your school library resource centre' was used to provide guidance on how to measure the success of improved library provision against set targets.

These targets were then shared with the governing body who subsequently gave approval for the necessary budget to:

i)    increase quantity and range of resources in the library.
ii)   buy in Schools Library Service to assist in the discarding, classification and layout of resources.
iii)  purchase library management system. (Governors now appreciated that a computer would assist school in gathering evidence on how the library is subsequently used.)
Finally a decision was also taken to release some classroom assistants time to physically staff the library during the school day  in order to facilitate the use of the area by small groups of pupils.