An engineering specialism within a grammar school
Library
“At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better."
(Barack Obama)
Aims of the Department
To support the highest possible standards in education by providing information resources and the delivery of information literacy skills training for every learner in the school, as well as promoting and encouraging reading for pleasure
Lower School or KS3
All first year pupils have a weekly lesson in the library during which they learn how to use a variety of information resources effectively to undertake research in a variety of curricular projects. They learn how to use both book based and online based resources to build on their own prior knowledge to create new meanings. These introductory skills are then built up during Years 8 and 9 when pupils complete research projects in a variety of curricular subjects. During Key Stage 3 we build the foundations for a lifetime of independent learning.
The Library runs reading clubs for Key Stage 3 and hosts a variety of activities geared around raising the profile of reading in school.
Upper School or KS4
The skills that were developed at Key Stage 3 are revisited but this time as aids to course work and revision. Pupils learn how to modify the research skills they learned at Key Stage 3 in a new way, discovering for themselves which techniques work best for them.
Sixth Form or Post 16
Sixth formers use the library independently throughout the day for private study and to obtain assistance with their studies. The librarian creates specialist online resources to help students to find relevant sources for their studies, works with individual students to find the best resources for the student’s personal studies, and arranges inter-library loans on behalf of the students with the British Library and North Yorkshire County Library Service. The library leads a reading club and runs a wider-reading challenge, both specifically designed to keep 6th formers developing as readers.
As well as the main library, there is a learning centre with a bank of laptops and selected resources for sixth form use only within the newly built 6th form centre.
Internet links
www.philb.com/searchindex.htm - Get the most out of Internet searching by using this online guide
www.ripongrammar.co.uk/subject_departments/library/projectplanner.php - An online guide for GCSE and A level planning for coursework and/or revision
www.ripongrammar.co.uk/subject_departments/library/netskills.php - The library’s guide to getting the most out of the Internet
