As our views of education and the world rapidly change, it is crucial that the learning spaces we offer promote and reflect matching authenticity. Traditionally, Libraries were recognised as a quiet space, where eating and drinking were forbidden, and should you dare raise your voice beyond a whisper, a glare from the Librarian would traject you into a form of repentance.
At St. Peter’s we desire for our library to be so much more. We are incredibly fortunate that the physical location of our library is within the centre of our school. This effectively enables it to be the learning hub of our school. If you walk into our library on a general day to day basis, you will already observe that it is a hive of learning. From whole class STEAM lessons with Miss Oberle, to small groups working intentionally towards a goal with a range of teaching assistants and teachers. From students seeking their next reading adventure during a borrowing session, to students building towers and imaginary spaces in their lunchtime, our library is very much alive.
But our question to consider is ‘Is this enough? What more could we offer?’
The International Baccalaureate (IB) views the School Library as a crucial resource hub offering a variety of sources: human, physical and virtual. The role of both the library and librarians is to ‘drive and support varieties of learning, teaching and service’ in a way that provides inspiration, transforms the school community and enhances learning. (International Baccalaureate Organisation. June 2018: Ideal Libraries: A guide for schools) If we compare this to the traditional view of a library, we would agree that a traditional library would not meet these ideals. What I do love however, is how beautifully this ideal aligns with our school vision.
Throughout 2020, our Pedagogical Leadership Team participated in Professional Development with the intention of balancing the Enhanced PYP with our future steps. We identified our School Library as an area for development, with a keen interest in considering what the future of the library could be. As part of this, we challenged our thinking of what a library actually is.
Some long term ideas consider how we can incorporate Robotics and Technology as a way to enhance student learning. Imagine students walking in the doors to be greeted by a robot, who can help them find a book they were looking for?
We are also considering ways to make certain elements of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) visible, such as a ‘Celebration of Action’ wall where students can share what they have been doing with their learning, with other students. And of course, the physical design of the space alongside modular furniture, is on our list of ideas!
In the short term, we have already implemented iPads with the full library catalogue for student use, empowering them to independently locate books. We are also looking towards further ways we can reduce administrative requirements through digital technologies to enable us to invest more time in supporting learning.
We are aligning our physical resources into the six Transdisciplinary Themes of the Primary Years Programme (PYP), to promote authentic fiction and non-fiction texts into all Units of Inquiry across the school. In order to do this, book boxes are being created to develop a fluid approach to library resources, where books remain in classroom spaces at the student’s fingertips, ready for use when required.
We are also utilising the space for more than just ‘borrowing’, to also be a collaborative meeting space for teachers, and as mentioned above, a centralised location for STEAM lessons to occur. A flexible timetable is available for teachers to use the library space to supplement their own lessons as well.
We are looking forward to opening this space up to our wider school community in the coming months, to be a place for Parent Workshops and Information Sessions, and are keen to explore the development of working bee opportunities to assist us in making new resources available in an efficient manner.
When you consider the terms ‘inspiring’, ‘transforming’ and ‘enhancing’, we can see that all libraries should be continuously evolving. One thing that we will never deviate from however is that our library remains a safe learning environment that is accessible to all members of our learning community.
