3 Supporting teaching colleagues and the curriculum

As you saw in the previous sections, a one-size-fits-all approach across the school library profession is unrealistic as no two schools are the same. Demonstrating an awareness of this in your collection management is key and allows you to more effectively support teachers and the specific educational process in your school.

By working collaboratively with teaching colleagues from across your school, you will be better able to identify which resources to invest in as part of your collection management, allowing you to tailor your provision to the educational needs of students in your school. For example, by consulting with teachers and other colleagues, such as the head of special educational needs, you can gain a deeper understanding of the teaching process and better support teaching and learning across the curriculum for those with special educational needs. Demonstrating an awareness of syllabi and topics of study can help your meetings with colleagues to be more profitable. Showing other teaching staff that you are interested in their subject is also likely to lead reciprocal support for you.

To reflect further on these issues, watch Video 2 below where Sarah offers her own thoughts on the ways in which libraries can support staff and the curriculum. As you watch, consider your experiences and think about how your own library offers support to teachers and other school colleagues.

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Transcript: Video 2

SARAH:

I think when you're doing some collaborative project work with teachers, it's really important to do your homework. I certainly found if you can invest some time in looking at the exam syllabus that they're following or maybe you look at the scheme of work and the coverage of the curriculum, then you become more knowledgeable and you can make sure that the help you're going to give them is relevant.

Always remember, these are busy people. And I remember my daughter saying to me once that stop filling up my brain with things that I don't need to pass the exam. And I think we need to bear that in mind because we need to keep our help to the point and something that people accept, so that they accept us as part of the learning team.

With that in mind, it's also important to pick teachers who are really wanting to work with you. Because if you can work together to plan the lesson and to select the resources, then you can ensure that the learning outcomes for the students will be met. If you've got confidence in what learning outcomes the students are trying to achieve, it really helps you to guide the students to the correct resources no matter what the format is.

But the other thing is that some teachers, they might have a really difficult class to deal with and they just want an alternative environment, somewhere else to take that class, so that maybe they calm down a bit or they're more ready to learn. And we have to be aware that sometimes that's how they want to use our libraries.

One thing that I really enjoyed was watching teachers teach. You can learn so much. Not just the good bits, but you can learn what to avoid as well. And it led me to a qualification, just an NVQ level three, in adult education and training for post 16 students, and that got me to understand where teachers are coming from. It got me to speak the speak and it got me to understand the terminology.

End transcript: Video 2

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Video 2

In the video, Sarah stressed the importance of ‘doing your homework’. By becoming knowledgeable on the exam syllabus or the scheme of work being studied it ensures you are able to give relevant support and become an integral part of the school. The relationship between librarian and teacher, however, is two-way and so, as Sarah suggests, you should look to work with teaching staff who are keen to collaborate. Working together, you can plan lessons with clear direction so the library can help learning objectives be met.

Now you have heard how Sarah supports staff and the curriculum, have a go at Activity 3 which will provide you with an opportunity to develop your ideas, by considering the benefits of your current approach and how it might be improved.

This activity should have made you think about the way you work with colleagues. One of the greatest benefits of working with colleagues is that it provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate the value and the breadth of services you and your library can offer. It also helps to forge relationships and helps you both understand what areas you need to develop. If enhancing curriculum-led usage of the library is a goal you’ve highlighted for your library development plan, you might consider building up relationships with teaching colleagues in specific subject areas as a strategy to achieve this.

Teaching colleagues are just one stakeholder you will work with as a school librarian. In the next section, you will identify others and learn how to support their needs.