by Lisa O

Recruiting for the school library

I read every job description / recruitment ad for school library staff in New Zealand that I see. I am passionate about the future of library services for our students. In particular how we can contribute to the evolution of these services so that future students will enjoy a more equitable provision of and an ever increasing quality of services

Just as a playing field doesn’t make an athlete, nor does a library make a learner or a reader. It takes an agent, a person who supports and enables students through resources, skills development and coaching. Connecting learners to the people, resources and skills they need is a service – performed by a person or team.

In the ecology of the library learning environment there are a variety of different roles and people who fill them. In reading job descriptions from schools around New Zealand, there are skills and qualifications that are often sought, and there is often a “person spec” or list of qualities as well. These skills, qualities and qualifications with various emphases are somewhat standard.

A set of dispositions or attributes is also important and that any one working with students and teachers in a library learning environment must be in possession of these non-negotiable traits.

Here are some that would top my list:

• Relates to and genuinely enjoys working with students/children as well as adults
  • easily develops rapport with students and colleagues
• A passion for education and literacy
  • understands the many ways library services impact on achievement
• An affinity for continuous life long learning and personal/professional learning
  • always seeking  to find ever better ways to support learning/literacy outcomes
  • always leading the development of services and programmes to support learners and teachers
• Enjoys working as part of a multi-player team, on different projects with different people
  • a willing collaborator with teaching colleagues to add value to the learning environment, who understands and supports the school’s education goals
• Effective and enthusiastic communicator
  • understands and differentiates audience needs and uses effective communications styles face to face, in written communication, through web based tools and when presenting to groups.

  This is not a comprehensive list but I think it is a start.  Anyone can learn a library system, or other software, but great school librarians share a love of students, and a passion for empowering learning and literacy. 

  View videos showcasing excellence in practice and learning facilitation in New Zealand school libraries.

by Tracy

Are you looking for resources to support your learners throughout the year?  Do you want new and exciting material; books to engage and inspire students; digital resources that educate, stimulate, and motivate.  

Curriculum Services offers this and more. All around New Zealand, every school has access to the very best information, support, professional knowledge and resources available.

Over the next several weeks ANZAC and Matariki will be at the forefront.  Along with our print collections, we have a wonderful selection of digital material, which you can access at any time to support classroom learning.

The High Interest Topics area on our Services to Schools site has an extensive list of authoritative, quality web resources specially selected by Curriculum Services Librarians on subject areas that are constantly in high demand.

Take a look at our entries on ANZAC and Matariki.  

There is also wonderful content in the Primary Sources section. These galleries include material that has been digitised from the Turnbull collections in Wellington, along with supplementary material: explanations of what primary sources are; guides for using primary sources and educator resources too.

Have a look at the Primary Sources ANZAC gallery.

For more information on Matariki take a look at Many Answers, which collates responses from librarians around New Zealand to students’ questions on this topic. The focus is on developing student information literacy skills.   

Now is the time to be placing your order for resources with your nearest Curriculum Services Centre. You can order classroom resources online. If you would like any of the digital resources mentioned above sent to you please tick the appropriate box on the order form and provide us with your email address. Otherwise these resources are easily available to you on our Services to Schools page.

We look forward to sending you resources and would love to hear what you and your students have done with the material. What have you created? What have you learnt? How did the material strengthen and assist the inquiry process? If you have stories or feedback your nearest centre would love to hear from you. 

By Rob F

School library teams have an important part to play in reaching students who are part of the “long tail” in education. A recent Education Review Office (ERO) report defined priority learners as: “groups of students who have been identified as historically not experiencing success in the New Zealand schooling system. These include many Māori and Pacific learners, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and students with special education needs.”  What does this mean for us?

The report identifies three key issues:

Shifting the focus to student-centred learning

Learning involves relationships and communication, responding to students (and their families) as they are. When the library is welcoming and inclusive, students respond. The teacher may be the agent for presenting a planned curriculum. Librarians can present themselves more easily as a ‘partner in learning’.  

Knowledgeably implementing a responsive and rich curriculum

The national curriculum is flexible. According to ERO: “generally, schools are not developing and managing their curricula in ways that are responsive to learners…some schools do not make use of the information they have about students to design a curriculum that responds to their strengths, interests and learning needs.”

Four curriculum principles: “future focus, coherence, cultural diversity and Treaty of Waitangi” and their importance for priority learners are not well understood in some schools. “Schools should be places where learners’ cultural and ethnic identities are acknowledged, celebrated and promoted through the curriculum.” Schools’ curricula and teaching practice need to “reflect the culture, knowledge and understanding of learners.” 

Library teams can contribute to the resourcing of these curricula. Librarians are aware of the informal curriculum, the interests and preoccupations and spontaneous questions- of students and can work with students outside of classroom time to support priority learners.

Using assessment information to know about and plan for students’ learning

School libraries can use this data to inform:

• expectations: “the expected learning students should make”
• measurement of progress: “learning students have made”
• analysis of the gaps between expectation and reality:  “the learning they need to make”
• measurement of the impact of the curriculum.

Library staff can use the available assessment information to plan their support for: literacy, inquiry and curriculum content areas using library resources. 

The report says that little measurement of specific groups like Māori, Pasifika and students with special learning needs actually takes place, and it is necessary to “recognise and cater for the significant diversity that comprises the Pacific populations in school.”  “It is not enough for schools to analyse and respond to achievement information of a notional Pacific ‘cohort.”

Consider how the library can provide support for priority learners and discuss the opportunities with school leadership. Investigate and plan to deliver that support. Incorporate an evidence based approach to the development of new services for your priority learners. Use existing data and carefully consider how and what you will measure to know you have made a difference.

How to get started

• Attend a course on priority learners 
• Find out about Te Kotahitanga and Talanoa Ako (Pasifika) principles.
• See great library practice in this video of the library at Viscount School, where they have made supporting literacy through the library a top priority.

Further reading:

Evaluation at a glance: priority learners in New Zealand schools 

Colouring in the white spaces: cultural identity and learning in school

Supporting Māori students

Supporting Pasifika students 

By Carrie

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank, is now available as an interactive app for the iPad and NOOK. It is one of the most incredible book apps I have ever seen and is a worthwhile investment for any school.

The app includes the full text of the diary and also provides video interviews, audio clips, historic documents and archival images. There is a dual timeline featuring images and information about Anne’s life and family as well as historical images and commentary about the war. This gives readers a better understanding of what life was like in the Secret Annexe and also what was happening around the world when Anne was in hiding.

A quick tap on a word will allow you to listen to an audio clip, watch a video, see where a person or event fits into the timeline and read more information. There are also curated ‘Story Trails’ which explore themes in the text. For example, if you follow the ‘Life in Hiding’ trail you are brought to relevant passages in the diary and given further information about both Anne’s life and the world events which drove the family into hiding.

The app has been developed with the cooperation of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel, founded by Anne’s father Otto Frank in 1963. They have made rare and previously unpublished material available and Anne’s only surviving direct relative, her cousin Buddy Elias, is featured. There is also a commentary from Miep Gies, one of the people who risked her life to help Anne and the other occupants of the Secret Annexe.

Go check out the trailer and the video Walkthrough with voiceover. Prepare to be amazed!

photo by smiteme