Have you ever wondered how our central office team spend their time? A week in the life of the SLA includes a broad range of activities from answering member queries via phone and email, to catching up on the latest book releases, and attending and facilitating online webinars and in-person events. Here's a glimpse behind the scenes at some of our recent activities.
Training event: Reading intervention at The King's School in Chester
We recently hosted a national event at The King's School in Chester, in collaboration with Chester Education Library Service (ELS). The theme of the session was "Interventions, Innovation and Inspiration." We are aware that many school library staff are now being asked to take a leading role in reading interventions, particularly working with reluctant or struggling readers, and we wanted to create an opportunity for members to share their experiences and best practices in this area.
At this event attendees heard from Stuart Smith, Head of English at Neston High School who has been doing brilliant work on intervention alongside his library staff member. The librarian and Head of English presented together on the different ways they implement interventions, with proven impact on reading ages. It was an excellent example of a whole school approach that is really working.
The event was held at King's School because it's an exceptional example of what a beautifully refurbished library can look like. While not everyone can replicate a refurbishment to this scale, participants could see a wealth of practical ideas that they might be able to implement on a smaller budget – signage ideas, layout concepts, different approaches to genre categorisation, and flexible furnishings.
Highlight learnings from the event
It was inspiring to hear about the work that Stuart is doing at Neston High, particularly because he is working on a very tight budget, meaning that his learnings are achievable and replicable for others. Stuart has been implementing one-to-one reading mentors and seeing measurable impact from the scheme. He shared videos showing students saying things like, "I used to really hate reading, but now I've met with Mr. Smith every week for a term for 20 minutes to read with him, I love it."
Stuart looks at the whole school timetable to see who has gaps in their day and asks them to take on reading responsibilities. As a result, the reading scheme includes the whole school - PE teachers, sixth formers, even exam invigilators during exam season. Reading has become part of the wider school activity, and the impact is tangible.
The message was clear: this approach is accessible. Library staff can connect with the whole school community; it is community-wide intervention, and it works.
Branch meetings: Connecting members locally
Branch meetings around the country play a vital role in helping our members stay connected at a regional level. The meetings are usually arranged by an experienced and motivated member, who offers to lead the branch in their geographical area. They organize meetings for SLA members within their region on a regular basis, helping members to stay in touch.
The West Midlands branch recently collaborated with Peter’s Books in Birmingham to host a meeting. Peter’s representative, George, delivered an insightful session about reading for enjoyment, addressing the concerning decline in reading for enjoyment – as researched and reported by the National Literacy Trust.
Interestingly, we found out that while nationally only 34.6% of children say they enjoy reading a lot, in the West Midlands it's 39.5% - so West Midlands children are marginally more likely to read for pleasure, which was a great statistic to share at this branch meeting and highlights how important it is to factor in regional demographics.
George shared Peters’ approach to encouraging more children to find the joy in reading, which is: "represent, invite, and engage" - focusing on children seeing themselves in books. He shared stories about working-class children who might not be engaged with reading ordinarily but become much more interested when they read authors like Matt Goodfellow and are able to see themselves represented in the stories.
Branch meetings serve multiple purposes beyond professional development. They provide valuable opportunities for members to connect with colleagues, keep abreast of important issues affecting school libraries, and share inspiration. For the SLA team, attending branch meetings helps us to better understand how to support the vital work happening in school libraries across the country.
Being a part of the SLA provides members with a ready-made network and a national voice that helps build professional confidence. If you ever feel uncertain in your role, we can support you, help you find your voice and advocate for you.
You might be doing well on your own, but you never know how much better you could be, how much time you could save, or enthusiasm you could untap if you are part of something bigger. We can offer advice, training and support, and connect you with other librarians in a meaningful way and there’s nothing we would rather be doing with our weeks!
Find out more about membership today.