School Libraries> Examples of Effective Practice > Bankier Primary School, Falkirk Council

Bankier Primary School

Tales for Tots

The school is working in partnership with Community Education to develop the capacity of the Community Wing attached to the school aiming to improve provision in the surrounding area. There is no static community library in the local area and using the groups already using the Community Wing was a way of reaching into the community to develop literacy, parenting skills and confidence.

The groups are already using the wing include the Mothers and Toddlers Group and the Child Minders Group. These groups of people are from the local community and some are former, current or future parents of pupils attending the school. The Mothers and Toddlers group have been working on a programme to develop adult literacy called ‘Tales for Tots’.

This project helps parents to write their own personalised bed time stories for their own children and is enhanced by parents videotaping their stories so their children can see their parents on DVD reading the stories they have written for them. The parents’ videos are also shown to school children at assembly. This has several advantages for both parents and children. It develops literacy skills for both, helps with bonding and developing parenting skills, builds confidence and develops closer community links and partnership working.

Relationships and interest in literacy have developed sufficiently well for the parents to put a suggestion into the comments box about the parents asking for library tickets so that they can use the school library to borrow picture books. This is a particularly welcome development which compensates for the lack of a local static community library, makes the school’s reading resources more widely available and is helping the school and families work together to develop literacy.