SPAG, SATs and other Horrible Things - by Emma Barnes

This post is an expanded version of one that I wrote a few days ago for GirlsHeartBooks.  In particular there is new section on "Where is the evidence?" for the current approach.

 

If I'm looking a bit pained, not to mention puzzled, it's because I'm staring into my computer trying to do some of the questions that 10 and 11 year olds were doing for their SATS test papers this year. 

If you didn't do SATS yourself, you might want to take a look .  See how you do. 

 I'm a writer, so you'd think I would find these questions about the English language pretty easy.  Not so.  Sad to say I have never heard of a "subordinating conjunction", to take but one example.  And do you know what?  It hasn't exactly held me back so far. 

Ah, but that's because I write creative, airy-fairy stuff, I can hear you say.  Children's fiction.  I can even get away with starting this paragraph with "Ah". 

Think again.  I was once a civil servant.  I wrote briefings, letters, minutes and even politicians' speeches.  (I hope my writing was better than some of the stuff that comes out of government departments.)  I also went to graduate school, and not to study creative writing either, but political science. 

Actually, I'm not even against teaching grammar.  I didn't learn much of it in school (it wasn't fashionable then) and it would have been helpful when learning a foreign language later.  Also, some children enjoy a more formal approach to English. 

But like a lot of writers (and teachers and parents and - I'm guessing, because nobody seems to ask them - children) I think all this testing has gone too far.  The worst thing is, I can't see the link between the kind of tasks that children are being asked to do and actually improving their literacy in any meaningful way.  Meanwhile, a lot of truly valuable things - such as actual reading and writing - are being squeezed out. 

 And what's taking their place? SPAG! Now how bad can that be? Sounds like it's short for spaghetti, right, and everyone loves spaghetti.

But no, SPAG is actually short for Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, and in its current form many children probably feel it was dreamt up purely as an instrument of torture!

 On visits to schools, I meet too many stressed teachers and children, who are being forced to concentrate on SPAG and other SATS prep when they could be doing something more interesting - like actual reading and writing - instead.  When I do workshops, children write down their versions of the stories that we have invented.  In the process, they are practising description, narrative, dialogue, setting, sentence construction and many other important things.  They are also having fun.  What saddens me is that they often have little chance to do this kind of writing at school.  Something is going very wrong.

 I'm not the only writer who thinks this.  In fact, children's writers as a whole have said that they think SATS are actually damaging children's writing.  For example:

• Read about the views of the Society of Authors here.
• Here's a letter condemning SATS whose signatories include writers Philip Pullman, Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons.
• Here's a piece by writer Anne Rooney showing that the rules for using exclamation marks given to primary children are plain wrong.
• Here's another piece she wrote about Wow Words.
• Here's a post by Nicola Morgan on grammar in the current tests.
• Here's a post by writer C.J. Busby on why the current approach is actually detrimental to children's writing.
• Here's a post by Michael Rosen about his son's SPAG homework - his blog also has many examples of the illogicalities of the current tests.

As I've said, I'd actually like to know more grammar.  Sometimes I'm not certain which version of a sentence is correct.  But do you know what?  It's not that hard - I just look it up.

My Trusty Grammar Guide

What you can't just look up is language itself.  To be a fluent reader and writer, there is no substitute for practice.  You can give children endless rules to learn.  But they won't be able to read and write well unless they read and write regularly.  If they do, then most likely their grammar will be correct most of the time anyway.

 This requires time, and access to books.  So why not concentrate on those things rather than dreaming up ever more bizarre and convoluted tests?

Where's the evidence?

What I increasingly wonder about it where is the evidence for the current approach to teaching English?

If you go to a doctor, and are prescribed treatment, you tend to hope that there is some kind of evidence - based on research - that lies behind the choice of that treatment.  In fact in the UK there is an entire agency, NICE, which exists to look at particular medical treatments, review the evidence supporting them, and advise doctors on the best ways of treating various conditions.

You would think that educational policy - prescribing the way children are taught in school - would also be based on some kind of evidence.  Especially as it is constantly changing - placing additional burdens on the teachers and children who have to adjust.

Is there evidence that the approach taken at the moment is actually effective?  Does it produce more literate children - able to read and write more fluently, to cope better with the demands of their high school eduction?  Are they more likely to possess the literacy skills they need in adult life?

If there is such evidence, I'd love to see it.

By contrast, there is a huge amount of evidence that reading for pleasure is hugely beneficial to children's educational attainment - not only their literacy, but across the board.  This research regularly appears, and is international in scope.  Here's a link to just one such study - there are many more.

But what are the government doing to respond to this evidence?

I'm sure they would respond that they are not trying to deter reading for pleasure.  But they don't exactly seem to be going out of their way to encourage it, either.  Regional School Library Services - whose role it is to support schools - are closing.   The Society of Authors has campaigned for every school to have a library (every prison must have a library by law, but schools don't have to) - but so far without success.  With so many public libraries closing too (a truly national scandal) many primary children do not have access to the range of books they need to turn them into readers.

Furthermore, there is only so much time available.  The increasing focus on tests and SPAG inevitably squeezes out library time, quiet reading, the shared "read aloud" class novel.  Money spent on SATS revision guides cannot be spent on books for the school library.

Yes, I wish I'd learnt more grammar - but not the way it's being taught now.  Not at the expense of so much else.  In the end I did pretty well in that test.  That's because I've always been a reader and a writer. That's what I'd like to see children doing - learning to become lifelong readers.

There is a lot more to writing and reading than knowing a "subordinating conjunction" when you see it. As a first step - go and pick up a good book instead. 

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• Emma Barnes writes funny, contemporary fiction for children - for more information see her web-page.
• Her latest book, Wild Thing Goes Camping, is the third in her series about the naughtiest little sister ever.

 

An Inspector Calls? by Keren David

It is 2016. We live in the United Kingdom, birthplace of the English language, home of so many leading authors of children's literature. Birthplace of Shakespeare, Milton, Austen. Books are our shared heritage. If you're trying to puzzle out what British values might be, the best place to start is in a library.

Yes, you do detect a note of sarcasm. 

What's happening in our schools? 

• Books are piled into skips and destroyed

• Budgets for school libraries are slashed.

• Libraries are dismantled and converted into classrooms.

• Librarians have been sacked or demoted.

This week the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) published a survey of school libraries at their annual conference in Liverpool. It told a devastating story of decay and destruction. 

Sometimes it was budget cuts, sometimes the lure of new toys.  'The new head has decided a library is no longer needed so is planning to get rid of it as all reading can be done on iPads,' said one teacher at a primary school in the West Midlands. A PRIMARY school, a place where children learn to read, but will now be unable to browse books and discover the ones they might enjoy. ' Our library has become a wall of shelves in a corridor with two chairs -  we used to have a designated room where children could sit or read or research, We needed the space for another classroom,' said a teacher in a primary school in Cornwall. 

It's not just school libraries that are being  eviscerated.  School library services are disappearing too. This year I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the Red Book Awards in Falkirk, run by the School Library Service there. The dedication that had gone into making this event fun, meaningful and a positive learning experience for the students involved was obvious. And yet Falkirk Council is cutting the entire SLS budget -  saving less than £400,000 -  in an appalling act of cultural vandalism. 

The ATL's  modest suggestion to stop the rot was that Ofsted should be charged with reporting into schools' library provision. I like this idea. The judgment of Ofsted inspectors is something that school leaders genuinely care about. If they could fail an inspection for not employing a librarian, not restocking a library or replacing books with tablets, then we might see a change in policies and priorities.  

I'd go further and suggest that academy chains taking over a school should be required to ring-fence a percentage of  its budget to maintain a physical library, employ a librarian or library service and replenish the book stock. 

We also need to champion the schools that are bucking the trend. 

Last month author Jonny Zucker opened a brand new library at Kenilworth Primary School in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The school choir sang. The Jolly Postman delivered book recommendations to every child. The Hungry Caterpillar provided snacks.

Head teacher Samantha Jayasuriya said: “We are determined at Kenilworth to keep our library open and thriving helping our children develop a love of lifelong reading.

“Libraries are amazing community spaces and Borehamwood is very lucky to have a beautiful and well stocked town library.

In Shropshire, in January, author Nicola Davies opened a new library at Highley Primary school.  English teacher Vicki Kelly said:  “We converted one of our spare rooms into a library space and the PTA gave us £1,000 to buy books for it. The children love having a library and it also has soft chairs, so is a good place for them to work in, research and read for pleasure.”

Hurray for schools which value libraries and invest in them!  Unleash the Jolly Postman and his recommendations to every community in the UK! And send Ofsted's inspectors along with him, just in case. 

World Book Day 2016: It's Almost Here... by Emma Barnes

World Book Day 2016 will soon be upon us! The official date is Thursday, 3^rd March, but like many other children's authors, my World Book Day tends to spread out over more than a week. I get invited to lots of schools, and perform tasks as diverse as opening new libraries or judging fancy dress competitions (impossible!). But always, always I'm spreading the word about love of books and reading.

Talking about books

There's been a few new books since

signing for pupils

Enjoying the new library

Travelling has its compensations

Another school library!

Somebody's listening

An unfortunately placed arrow

This school were prepared!

Reading aloud is vital

Here's just some of the things I try to do:

- talk about my own favourite books and why they got me writing
- help kids see books can be an escape into another world
- show that love of reading is a life-long gift
- read aloud to the kids, and get them engrossed in an exciting, funny or dramatic passage
- explain that being a good writer is not mainly about punctuation and spelling: it's about imagination and being able to make a reader feel “What happens next?”
- ask the kids about their own favourite books
- acknowledge that not everyone likes reading – but sometimes its just a matter of finding that special book that gets you excited and into that reading habit.

I often do writing workshops with the kids, and I've got aims for those too. I try and do activities that reflect the way I work as a writer, and which will either complement what the children do in school, or else show them an entirely new way of doing things. The National Curriculum can be extremely prescriptive, and its exciting and liberating for children to find that they don't always need to plan a story a particular way (or at all) – and that “real” writers work in different ways, and so can they. Some of my principles are:

- reading aloud gets the imagination working

- it's about the process, not the result (children shouldn't feel afraid to fail)

- all writers have different methods

- there's a time to worry about spelling and a time to go with the flow

- everyone should be able to join in

- writing can be fun and playful

- let's celebrate the (funny, moving, scary, atmospheric, always imaginative) results.

And finally here's some of the things I will try not to do:

- get lost on the way to school

- take the wrong exit on the motorway

- forget my Sat Nav

- forget my memory stick or “clicker”

- forget my lunch

- get locked into the school car park
- trip over a cable or crash into a whiteboard

- eat too many biscuits or (horror of horrors!) use somebody's favourite mug in the staffroom.

It's going to be a full-on, fun, exhausting, time. I'm looking forward to it – and I'm looking forward to coming out the other side too.

Happy World Book Day (in two weeks from now) to you!

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Emma's Website
Emma’s Facebook Fanpage
Emma on Twitter - @EmmaBarnesWrite
Emma's Wild Thing series for 8+ about the naughtiest little sister ever. (Cover - Jamie Littler)
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is a story of wolves, magic and snowy woods...
(Cover: Emma Chichester Clark)
"Funny, clever and satisfying..." Books for Keeps

Markets, Institutions and Children's Books: Is there a problem? - Emma Barnes

This post is by way of being a Part 2. In Part 1 I wrote about how different kinds of books  reach a reader's hands in different ways. I used the example of my own favourite childhood reads to show that while some books make their way to the reader directly through the “market” (in my case this was often through the medium of DL's Book Exchange, a bookshop in Edinburgh), others may rely on “non-market” institutions – libraries, schools, prize committees – to champion them, and to allow them to reach what may often be much more of a slow-build or niche readership.
I argued that both the commercial mass market and the non-market institutions had a role to play in championing different kinds of books, and allowing a real variety for all tastes and all readers.
I summarised the advantages and disadvantages of both as follows:

Good Things About the Market

• Not snobbish – if a child likes it, and parents prepared to buy it, they will publish it.
• Interested in all age groups and tastes – all “markets” in fact.
• Respects “genre” books – school stories, humour, ponies, mysteries etc
• Want books to be attractive and so compete with other entertainment/consumer goods.

Bad Things About Market

• Publicity potential, celebrity tie-ins, “hooks”, “high concept”, current fashions, may all end up more important than inherent quality.
• “Quieter” books, experimental books, unusual protagonists, niche interests etc may all get overlooked.
• Responds to purchasing power – which means some groups of readers will be neglected.

Good Things About Non-Market Institutions

• Don't just have to think about profit
• May be more likely to reward innovation, experiment or pure literary quality
• Can allow children to discover more 'educational” or worthy themes, or pursue minority interests by providing slow-burn, non-glitzy books
• May help to include groups with low purchasing power

Bad Things About the Non-Market Institutions

• May be overly “worthy” or snobbish – eg about genre books, overtly “commerical” titles – or inversely snobbish (eg the 1970s backlash against “elitist” titles)
• Has its own fads and fashions
• Adult-led – danger of losing touch with child readers
• May have objectives which may come before pure quality or enjoyment.

Where are we now? 

It's often said that we live in a new “Golden Age” of children's books. But I think as a writer, a parent and a children's book lover, there are reasons for concern.

On one level, the market is doing its bit – there are an enormous quantity of books out there: 10,000 new titles for children are published every year in the UK. Most of them are available at the click of a button from Amazon – often very cheaply). There's also evidence at the moment that children's book sales are performing more strongly than other kinds of book.  But many of use know all too well that many kids are not coming into contact with this richness. Bookshops have been closing at a frightening rate. The choice in supermarkets is extremely narrow. (Many of those 10,000 titles surely never appear in a shop at all.) Inevitably, publishers are finding it hard to bring new books to the attention of the book-buying public (the decline in newspaper review space does not help) and to build up new authors: hence the growth in celebrity authors who can garner their own publicity. As for Amazon and co – well, if you don't already know what you want, the millions of titles available at the click of a button really doesn't do you a lot of good.

Meanwhile in schools libraries and librarians often do not exist. School Library Services – which provide vital support and expertise to individual schools – are closing fast. Public libraries have been targeted for closures and cutbacks. (There were 600 fewer libraries in the UK in 2014 than 2004, and 500 of these had closed since 2010. Source: CIPFA public library statistics.) The role of libraries is being squeezed in more subtle ways than simple closures also. For example, for cost reasons librarians often have to rely on private companies to choose their stock – and may have little time to read, assess and choose books. Teachers may also find it hard to choose and recommend books for their pupils's general reading, given that they are given little training in children's literature or time to keep up with new titles.

All this means that the non-market infrastructure is being eroded. The informed discussion about children's books – what's out there, what works and what doesn't – diminishes. That informed discussion doesn't always get it right, but as a counterweight and a complement to the purely commercial, it's important that it exists. These days I doubt very much that anybody would worry about some librarians who decided to go on a vendetta against a popular author such as Enid Blyton. (Thank goodness for that.) But the flip side is that librarians and teachers may no longer have the confidence or the clout to make any impact on market trends.

In Part 1 I referred to the life story of Kaye Webbe, and how the Puffin imprint she ran flourished in an environment of expanding library services and thriving independent bookstores. That environment is very different now.(In this respect the UK situation seems very different than the USA, where both school and public libraries are still vital and powerful shapers of which children's books succeed.) All this is why even an interested adult, whether teacher or parent, can end up struggling to find the books they need or want for their child, and can feel dependent on a limited choice of bestsellers, celebrity-authored books, or old favourites from childhood. Its frustrating knowing there are so many new books out there, and not being able to identify the ones you really want to buy and read. And certain kinds of books – the more “worthy” or "niche" kind, which maybe need a place on a library shelf where the right child will eventually happen upon them – may be overlooked. 

 Am I being too gloomy here? I hope so. Please let me know what you think...
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Emma's Wild Thing series for 8+ about the naughtiest little sister ever. (Cover - Jamie Littler)
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is a story of wolves, magic and snowy woods...
(Cover: Emma Chichester Clark)
"Funny, clever and satisfying..." Books for Keeps

Emma's Website
Emma’s Facebook Fanpage
Emma on Twitter - @EmmaBarnesWrite

Why fund libraries when it's all online? - by Nicola Morgan

He was an intelligent man and he'd flown high in his career. I know that from the conversation we'd had up till that point. The point when he said, "But we don't need libraries, because it's all online now."

You can imagine the rattle of adrenaline through my veins. But I've learnt that in these situations a rant doesn't help matters. You have to go straight to the point.

"But how will you create readers," I asked, "Without libraries?"

"You can learn to read online," he suggested, clearly not having thought this through. But he's not alone in not having thought this through.

We're not winning the war to keep libraries (both public and school) valued and funded. We’re winning some battles but the enemy keeps popping up elsewhere, just as strong, blinkered and ignorant as before. We’re not winning it because of a fundamental misunderstanding by far too many people of what all libraries do. And what they do that nothing else can do, least of all the Internet. Unfortunately, many of these people are our elected politicians, entrusted with the education of our children and claiming to want a “fairer” society.

Libraries – and, crucially, their trained librarians – create readers. It’s that simple. Without the libraries you used as a young child, you would not be the reader you are now. I doubt any of us became a reader simply through the books our parents bought – even wealthy families wouldn’t choose to buy the quantity of books needed to feed a young reader. Young readers need, as James Patterson said recently, to be “inundated with books”, so they can find ones they like.

Liking books is not optional: it’s essential, if the child is to undertake the thousands of hours of practice necessary for the complicated process of becoming a reader. Teachers and parents, in different ways, teach children to read but that’s only the start of building a reader. Books do the rest and librarians curate the flood of books so that the child becomes a strong swimmer in ever deeper waters.

But that’s public libraries. What about school libraries? Why do we need those, too? Well, many families don’t use public libraries and, remember, we want a fairer society, where everyone can become a reader with a wide mind and big horizons, not just children with socioeconomic advantages. School librarians view each child, from whatever type of reading background or none, as a child who can, with help, have a richer reading life. They know better than anyone the full range of books, modern and classic, and how to make it enticing.

Too many elected politicians don’t understand any of this. Some, like the man I spoke to, believe libraries aren’t necessary because “It’s all on the Internet”. Oh yes, “it” is all on the Internet – all the words and knowledge you want, poems and stories, gems and sludge, recipes for bombes and bombs, facts and falsity, it’s all out there. And you can access it all (or the parts that Google throws to the top of the search results) and sift through it (eventually) and make good decisions about it (I hope) because you are readers. You are readers because as children you were inundated with books.

If politicians know this and still consider cutting funding, they must explain how they will create a fairer society when only the privileged can become real readers. Because that is what will happen where school library services are cut. Families who can afford to will fill the gap: they will buy as many books as they can and their children will have no limits to achievement. The children of other families will learn to read at school (I hope) but, lacking the necessary flood of book choice, will not become proficient enough to read widely for pleasure and so they will read much less. That would be fine if it was their choice. But they would have no choice.

Please help us win this war. CWIG (the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group of The Society of Authors) keeps fighting these battles, and so do loads of authors (particularly children's ones) such as Alan Gibbons, Cathy Cassidy and Malorie Blackman, and many ABBA bloggers and readers. But we need everyone to help spread the message that without a properly funded school library service and a dedicated librarian in every school, we cannot offer every child the power of reading. And without that, it’s just not a fair society.

Libraries are how people become readers.


Adapted from a piece for the Society of Authors in Scotland newsletter. 
Nicola Morgan is on the committee of CWIG, the Society of Authors’ Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group and is a former chair of the SOAIS. She is an Ambassador for Dyslexia Scotland and a specialist in adolescence, the science of reading and reading for pleasure. The Teenage Guide to Stress advocates reading for pleasure as a valuable anti-stress strategy.

Accelerated Reader - What's it all about? Cecilia Busby

Those of you who have children at secondary school, or are teachers or librarians, may have come across a new(ish) scheme called Accelerated Reader.

Administered in the UK by Renaissance Learning, Accelerated Reader is a system that grades books, suggests appropriate reading levels and then monitors pupils' reading by giving them a multiple choice quiz on the book they've just read. The system analyses the quiz responses to show teachers whether the pupil has read the book, and what aspects of it they found difficult (e.g., vocabulary, or higher level comprehension).


If they fly through a couple of quizzes, they are rewarded with a higher reading band. They can also collect points according to how long the book was that they read - leading to a total score of words read, and the accolade of 'word millionaire' when they get to the magic 1,000,000 words. They are however expected to stay within their bands - books read outside them, although allowed, do not count for rewards and incentives. For a slower reader, expected to progress at a certain number of books per term, or for a competitive reader, determined to get to the millionaire mark first, this more or less prohibits reading outside the given bands.

According to the National Literacy Trust, the use of Accelerated Reader in schools does actually get more pupils reading, and increases the proportion of pupils in the difficult teenage years who say they enjoy reading, will admit to a favourite book, and read widely across genres.

My daughter's school has just started using the scheme and the number of pupils taking books out of the school library has tripled compared with the same time last year. It's hard to argue with that kind of boost to pupils' interest in books and there really does seem to be a noticeable encouragement to read through the motivation of online quizes and rewards, particularly for boys.

What interests me, though, is the banding structure and the rationale behind it. AR uses a computer programme which scans the books and then analyses them for vocabulary and syntax (proportion of complex sentences). The range of banding for the books in a secondary school library is roughly from about 3 to about 11 or 12 for the very hardest books (for a rough idea of what these mean - R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books are about 3; Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov has an AR level of 11.1 )

AR level 3.0

AR level 11.1

More complex sentences and more advanced vocabulary result in a higher banding: and this more or less seems to work in terms of what one thinks of as appropriate progression - nobody is capable of reading Karamazov before they're capable of reading Goosebumps.

But there are two things I think are seriously problematic with the underlying assumptions of this scheme.

The first is a prescription that I think is wrong-headed: that we progress in reading in a straight line - that when we are capable of reading Dostoevsky, we are 'beyond' R.L. Stine. In fact, I think there are plenty of people who might go back and forth between the two and get different pleasures out of each. AR schemes do talk about letting pupils read 'below' their level as occasional 'comfort reads' - but this is presented as a kind of reversion. It's a bit like the idea that we all sometimes need to watch crap telly and eat donuts. It won't enrich our lives but it will give us some 'down-time'. For me, the idea that you are 'slumming it' by reading the 'easier' book is a pernicious one. The lower-level books are not just donuts, they may have all sorts of fabulous and enriching things to say to us as readers - they just do it in a different, though not necessarily less crafted or effective, way.

The second assumption is that the 'straight line' of reading progression is entirely about syntax and vocabulary. And this is where the truly jaw-dropping anomalies of AR banding become apparent. Using the AR website to check the relative banding of books for my daughter, I was amazed to discover that Alan Garner's Owl Service is banded at 3.7. By contrast, Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants is 4.3. And Captain Underpants and the Revolting Radioacive Robo-Boxers (presumably because of the number of multi-syllable words) is a whopping 5.3.

AR level 4.3

AR level 3.7

Bear in mind that the AR scheme suggests pupils are given relatively narrow bands to choose from - my daughter was started on 4.5–4.9. She was too high for The Owl Service, although she couldn't yet read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, at 6.3. If she waited to be able to read the Weirdstone, however, she would be too high to read its sequel, The Moon of Gomrath, which is 5.4.

Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur (a fabulous retelling of the Arthur legend from the point of view of a young girl co-opted into helping the bard Merlin, who is presented as a kind of early 'spin-doctor') is 5.6, so she'd reach that well before she was able to read Reeves' knockabout books for younger readers, the Buster Bayliss series (Custardfinger is rated 6.3).

Meanwhile, she is lucky that her favourite author, Marcus Sedgwick, uses relatively simple sentences, as that means that many of his books are in her range (My Swordhand is Singing, a complex tale of vampires set in medieval Eastern Europe, is 4.9). However, she's missed out on his Floodland, which is 3.9, and it won't be long before she's progressed to the point where all of Sedgwick's novels will have to be 'comfort reads', as Kevin-Crossley Holland's magnificent Arthur books already are (4.2–4.3). Never mind - because she can always stretch herself with Daisy Meadows; Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy is 5.4.

AR level 5.4

AR level 5.0

I could go on - but here is one final one to ponder. Debi Gliori's Pure Dead Brilliant is a whopping 7.5. This means you won't be able to progress to it till you are too high for The Lord of The Rings (6.1), and in fact you'd be in the same ball-park band as The Silmarillion at 7.9.

The computer analysis used to grade AR books clearly doesn't read them - it processes them as strings of words. The more important aspects of books - the ideas, the plot twists, the characters, the emotions, the metaphorical language - all of this is entirely missed. Yet this is most of what makes a book enjoyable, memorable, heart-breaking, what touches or thrills you as a reader. I am immensely saddened by the idea that whole swathes of teenagers are going to flick past The Owl Service and fail to pick it off the shelf of the school library because it has a black sticker on it (easy) rather than green or purple (harder, higher, more worthy).

Accelerated Reader is beloved of Ofsted, because it produces quantifiable results and signs of 'progress'. It certainly seems to be getting more pupils reading, and excited about getting their rewards and stickers - but it's encouraging at the same time a very quantitative approach to what reading is, and how we should do it. According to the National Literacy Trust survey, an extra 7% of pupils using the scheme are prepared to say they enjoy reading compared with those that don't use it. I wonder if that's an achievement worth celebrating if 100% of those pupils now think of reading as a goal-oriented activity with 'difficult' vocabulary being the measure of value?



Cecilia Busby writes fantasy adventures for children aged 7-12 as C.J. Busby. Her latest book, Dragon Amber, was published in September by Templar.

www.cjbusby.co.uk

@ceciliabusby

"Great fun - made me chortle!" (Diana Wynne Jones on Frogspell)

"A rift-hoping romp with great wit, charm and pace" (Frances Hardinge on Deep Amber)

School Library Services – and why we need them – by Emma Barnes

Something rather nice happened a few weeks ago. I hacking away at the coal face, trying to complete the edits for the third book in my Wild Thing series, when the publisher of my previous book, Wolfie, called to tell me that it had just won a prize – a Fantastic Book Award.

Writing is a funny kind of profession. It’s lonely, insecure, there’s no pension, and you never know if the next book will be taken on – but, being so unpredictable, it does produce its golden moments.

It was a real treat, winning the award. I got a certificate, a fountain pen, letters from the child judges. Best of all, I was invited to the presentation ceremony to meet some of the participating children. I heard what they thought about Wolfie, read their reviews, was stunned by their wonderful Wolfie board games and illustrations, signed their books and led a workshop brainstorming magic animal stories. (I’m tempted to steal some of their brilliant ideas!)

Celebrating the award!

I also got to meet the lovely folks at Lancashire School Library Services (Lancs SLS) who  actually run the award.

So, at this point, you’re probably wondering what this all has to do with the title – Emma supports School Library Services because they gave her a nice day out?

No, no, and no. Encouraging authors, nice though it is, is only a side effect of what School Library Services (SLSs) do. First of all, the point of regional book awards, like the Fantastic Book Award (FBA), is not really about the prize. It’s about the process. And that means the children reading, discussing – enjoying – the books. It’s all about bringing books and children together.  And that is what every School Libraries Service aims to do.

My winning book!

To which some might say – why can’t schools do this without a School Library Service? Just consider the following facts:

 - most primary schools don’t have a librarian
 - most primary schools have limited space for a library, and limited stock
- most primary school teachers are not experts in children’s literature, and so primary schools rarely have someone who can choose stock and advise children on which book to read.

 I know these things because I regularly visit primary schools, and have encountered many “libraries” that consist of little more than a handful of Roald Dahls and Dick King Smiths. I do meet teachers and teaching assistant who are passionate about children’s books and reading – but it is through their own personal interest. Wide knowledge of children’s books does not seem to be considered a key part of the job or its training. (I don’t blame hard-pressed teachers – I do blame an education system which has given so little priority to encouraging children’s reading.)

It’s the children that suffer. Here are some of the things that I have witnessed first hand, the result of primary schools without librarians:
  
 - a Year 3 child struggling and failing to read an ancient copy of Thackeray’s The Rose and The Ring from the school library. Nobody was aware that this was not in fact a young child’s read.
-  a boy giving up on a non-fiction book in disgust because its classifications of dinosaurs was decades out of date. 
- a school library that was revamped by parent volunteers, but where there was no library time, and no chance for children to borrow books, because there was no staff member to oversee this. 
- a school which was over 60% non-white, but where none of the books on the shelves had characters of the same ethnicity/religion as these pupils. 

Here, by contrast, are some of the things I’ve seen with a designated school librarian:

 - children’s reading being guided in a good way – e.g. if you like this, then perhaps you’ll like that: if you like The Rainbow Fairies, maybe you’ll like these books by Emily Rodda (also about fairies but more challenging).
- children able to say “I’m interested in Monet/dinosaurs/space/Greek Myths” and immediately being given something age appropriate that reflects their interest.
- regular library times, for quiet reading, but also finding out what library does and how to use it. 
- a wide range of stock which does not rely completely on just a few well established authors, and which reflects all ages, abilities and interests.

 It’s hard for individual schools to tackle these issues alone. The Society of Authors has been campaigning for every school to have a librarian, a campaign I HUGELY support, but the truth is it’s not going to happen any time soon.

Meanwhile School Library Services (SLSs) provide back up. They are the infrastructure on which individual schools can rely.

What does that mean in practice? Well, the first thing I saw when I visited my local SLS in Leeds was a huge warehouse full of books. There were shelves and shelves in all kinds of categories – and all of these books are available to, and regularly sent out by the box load, to the schools that subscribe to the service.

(A bad back must be an occupational hazard in a SLS!)

A school could phone up and say, “we’re doing a project on transport for Year 4” or “we’re struggling to find books for reluctant readers” or “we need books with Muslim characters” and the SLS would help. SLS staff know the stock. They can advise schools on how to access it, how to create a better school library, and how to create a reading culture in schools. They also organize author visits – so that children can meet authors face to face, and teachers can hear about new books too.

They also organize regional book prizes – like the Fantastic Book Award (FBA). For the schools and children involved, the FBA meant a chance to:

- meet in a weekly group to read and chat about the shortlisted books (chosen to reflect a range of abilities and interests)
- read purely for pleasure and to do other fun things, like post reviews online
- spread the word about the books in school
- let teachers know which new books are out there, and which their pupils enjoy
-  engage in activities like drawing the characters in the books, designing board games and eating chocolate muffins at lunch time! All these things help make reading “cool”.
- correspond with authors and meet them in person.

After the event, I was sent feedback from the children. Here’s a couple of quotes:

This morning was brilliant. Especially when we made the story with Emma Barnes, it was fantastic!

I think today was probably the best day in my life because I saw a real life author!

Unfortunately, School Library Services are closing.  Schools have to subscribe to their services – if they don’t subscribe, the service closes. Many parents don’t know what an SLS is or does, so won't protest – which must make them a soft target for cuts. In my own area, Bradford SLS closed in 2012, and  North Yorkshire SLS is to close next year. Who will step into the gap? Public libraries? They may try (I recently did a wonderful schools’ event organized by Oldham Libraries) but public libraries are also subject to deep cuts.

At a time when the value of reading for pleasure is being recognized and acknowledged – the research evidence for its benefits keeps mounting – it's bitterly ironic that the services needed to support it are being reduced.  I just hope that the politicians and public see what's happening before it's too late.

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Emma's new series for 8+ Wild Thing about the naughtiest little sister ever (and her bottom-biting ways) is out now from Scholastic. The second in the series, Wild Thing Gets A Dog is out in July.
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is published by Strident.   Sometimes a Girl’s Best Friend is…a Wolf. 
"A real cracker of a book" Armadillo 
"Funny, clever and satisfying...thoroughly recommended" Books for Keeps


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