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Posted on 11. May, 2009 by Mark in Articles

Smart schools have already claimed free books, but it’s not too late to join

There’s little doubt that Blurb the Book Monster would attract attention wherever he went: when you are seven feet tall and covered in bright blue fur, you expect some stares. But when Blurb enters Horniman primary school in Forest Hill, southeast London, he’s treated more like a movie star than the representative of The Sunday Times/The Times Books for Schools campaign. Excited children stick their heads out of classrooms and gather round him at break time, keen to meet the creature with enormous fangs and a backpack full of books.

Blurb is delivering an advance consignment of the free books Horniman has ordered for its school library, using the tokens collected every day from The Sunday Times and The Times by parents, teachers and friends over the 12 weeks of the first scheme, which ended just before Easter. So he finds that they won’t need any persuading to keep collecting tokens for the summer term campaign, which launches today with four tokens, see below, and continues until July 11. But as long as Blurb is encouraging the school’s 210 pupils to love reading, Hannah Brown, the assistant head teacher, is happy. After all, that’s what she and her colleagues do every day. Research suggests that listening to stories is one of the building blocks of learning, which is why the school’s library has walls lined with books as well as a bank of computers.

“Books and reading are vital in helping children to develop their writing skills,” Brown says. “It’s important that they have stories read to them, rather than just putting them in front of the computer.”

Hardly surprising, then, that more than 12,000 schools have signed up for the Books for Schools programme. And it’s not too late for your children’s school to register now and start collecting tokens. The more tokens you collect over the next 12 weeks, the more free books your school will get. And schools, such as Horniman, that are already ordering their selection from the list of titles offered in the first phase don’t need to worry about running out of good ideas. The summer term catalogue, see opposite, contains a fresh list that adds 120 new titles to 50 core books.

Start at birth

Whatever books they choose will contribute to the children living happier, more productive lives. Linking books and long-term happiness may sound like a stretch but research shows that good literacy is closely linked to life chances, says Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust charity. “If you have lower levels of literacy you are less likely to have high income, less likely to own your own home and less likely to have a stable family life,” he says. Literacy really is at the heart of things.”

It is important to develop literacy at a young age, says Douglas. “The critical age is 11. Children need to be able to access the secondary school curriculum, and if they are not able to do that, they are almost predisposed to fail.” But a love of reading really needs to start far younger than 11 – almost from the moment a child is born. Children’s neural patterns are shaped in the earliest weeks of their lives, so reading, talking and telling them stories should start when they are newborns, he says.

Horniman primary school runs reading workshops with parents and children every Friday morning. This helps parents to learn that reading to and with their children – however they decide to do it – is a good thing. “Sometimes parents need to see how to do it. They don’t want to do the wrong thing or to do something in a different way from the school, so we reassure them that even reading something such as a newspaper with their children is important,” says Brown. Obviously, when that newspaper is The Sunday Times there’s another benefit thanks to the tokens printed in each copy. Brown used the school’s newsletter to ask parents and other members of the community to collect tokens on its behalf.

Stories help to develop understanding and thinking skills as well as teaching about reading for pleasure. “One thing we need to address in education is where pleasure fits in,” says Douglas. “Skill sets are important, but children need to take delight in reading if those skill sets are to develop.”

Brown’s methods seem to be working with his Year 2 pupils. “There are some rubbish programmes on telly,” says Harry Arm-strong, 7. “I like books much more. When you read, you use your imagination and make a picture in your head. Later, you can watch the film and see if you got it right.”

His classmate Djamilla Nkereuwen, also 7, agrees. “I like adventure books,” she says. “I think other children should know that there are a lot of exciting books out there and that even though you might think they look boring, when you read the words you find out that they’re not.”

The heart of things

Reading for pleasure at the age of 15 is one of the greatest indicators of social mobility, says Douglas. “If they are doing that, they have internalised a love of learning.” School libraries have a critical part to play in teaching children about the joys of books. “They are crucially important,” Douglas says. “They make the statement that books and reading are important in the school community.”

“What I like about Books for Schools is that it’s not simply saying that libraries are important, it’s a call to action for parents and communities. It’s saying here is a practical and simple way to put reading at the heart of things.”

Lynne Litherland is head of the learning resource centre at Toot Hill School, a secondary with more than 1,500 pupils in Bing-ham, Nottinghamshire. “This has been one of our best-supported campaigns,” she says. “I think that’s because parents realise that reading opens doors and has an effect on other lessons. It has been proven that if you read more it has a knock on effect with spelling, writing and punctuation, and it raises grades.”

Unfortunately, not all schools even have libraries and some of those that do have seen their budgets cut. Lesley Evans, the librarian at Fulston Manor secondary school in Sittingbourne, Kent, says that she has strong support from senior management at her 1,200-pupil school but that not all are as lucky. So many schools are just shutting the libraries down and turning them over to computers,” she says. I am not a technophobe – you need computers – but you always need books as well.”

Trying to replace books with computers is “shortsighted”, says Tricia Adams, director of the School Library Association. “People think that they can get all their information from the internet but you need a mix of resources. You still need to have books to take around with you, to turn the pages and get transported by your imagination.” Dr Zoe Williams – better known to children as Amazon, the green Gladiator from the Sky television programme – agrees. She’s keen to encourage children to take up reading, as books helped to shape her own career direction. “When I was a child I always loved The Hungry Caterpillar. I am not affiliated to any school but I do want to collect the tokens and pass them on.”

Ian Beck, the author and illustrator of the Tom Trueheart series of books, became obsessed with reading thanks to his local library. “I came from a working-class household and my parents didn’t really buy books, so I used the library until I started to be able to buy secondhand books for myself. The first book that I ever bought with my own money was The Time Machine by HG Wells.” His son, however, didn’t see the point of books until he found himself on a long-haul flight. Then he read Northern Lights by Philip Pullman and discovered just how enthralling they can be.

It only takes one.

Carly Chynoweth – Sunday Times: April 19, 2009

Photo courtesy of vipulmathur

Tags: Books for Schools, literacy, reading, understanding and thinking