On Sunday 12th of October, our Librarian Ms Barker-Harrold and Assistant Head Teacher Mrs Wells attended The David Vaisey Award ceremony at Cheltenham Literacy Festival. The David Vaisey Award is to recognise and reward outstanding initiatives by Gloucestershire public and school libraries – initiatives that result in more people reading more books. Farmor's School library was awarded first place!
We received £4000 in funding for an ambitious, exciting, multifaceted project that will increase reading for pleasure whilst improving accessibility and inclusivity to reading. Cressida Cowell, author of 'How to train your dragon', presented the awards and spoke passionately about the vital role librarians play in getting the right book into the right hands at the right time.
Nationally, the transition from KS3 to KS4 is a time reading for pleasure rates plummet. This project will provide a kaleidoscope of methods to improve this and comes at an exciting time with the National Year of Reading approaching. Farmor's School librarian commented that "students are already casting their votes to help curate the brand-new Manga section, which is an incredibly popular and accessible format for young people. We'll also be investing in audiobooks and dyslexia friendly books - to provide equitable access to the many benefits of reading. In addition, we have an annual calendar of student led book clubs that will support our school's wide enrichment offering.