• I had a wonderful day yesterday, at the Hadley Learning Centre in Telford. It is an extraordinary Cathedral of Learning, comprising both Secondary and Primary Schools with Nurseries, Children’s Centre, Library, and Arts and Leisure centre, all built in a huge, circular donut of a building.

    The Library is fab, with a huge wall of glass facing the inner circle. I was looked after by a fantastcalyy enthusiastic team who had been working hard to promote the day, which was part of The Big Draw. It was such a busy day, I forgot to take photos.

    I gave a couple of talks. One about Viking Vik and the other about Monster Boy. After reading a story I showed how to draw the characters. I was particularly pleased that so many of the adults joined in and had a go too. I got to talk to all sorts of people about drawing. Some brought artwork in to show me too.

    There were lots of other things going on, lots of sticking and glueing. The Dance studio was converted into a forest full of furious activity where wild creatures were drawn and created to populate the woodland scene. Great fun.

    A wonderful success – due, as ever, to brilliant organisation and enthusiasm from the Telford Library Crew. Many thanks to you all.

  • My 83 year old mother has just been filling in the form to get a bus pass. Of course they want a photo, which is fair enough, but why, oh why do they need to ask for her ethnicity?

    No doubt someone, somewhere is being paid to collect the statistics and present pretty graphs to others, who are probably being overpaid for doing unnecessary jobs, so that they can prove that they have done their job and pick up their pay checks at the end of the month. Racism as a job creation scheme.

  • John Lane - Library Services Manager - Poole
    John Lane – Library Services Manager – Poole
    The visit I made this week was part of the Read A Million Words in Poole campaign, which has been spearheaded by the pasionate Library Services Development Manager, John Lane.

    Frustrated that the Summer Reading Challenge fades out at the start of the new school year, he wanted something more permanent and continuing and so has adapted the Read a Million Words idea, that started in the US and was then transferred to Bristol and Wales (where I was also involved).

    Children are encouraged to read a million words, (that’s like the entire Harry Potter collection) and get prizes and encouragement along the way at significant marker points. Words can be read anywhere – in books on posters on the back of cereal packets – and can be added to with special offers like 500 words for bringing Dad to the Library. It builds a deeper and more long lasting relationship with the Library than a quick summer scheme.

    RAMW has been used mostly in schools so far, so John is experimenting with its use in a Library situation. Children seemed very aware of the scheme and there are already quite a few millionaires. By the time they reach that status they are pretty much in the habit of reading, but the brilliant children’s team in Pool are working hard to find ways to go beyond the million words with millionaire’s clubs and events.

    When you talk to John, you soon find out how passionate he is about the scheme and the need to keep children reading as well as watching TV and Playing computer games. Learning to read powers up the language part of the brain like nothing else and promoting a love of reading is key to a successful education.

    Good luck to all working on RAMW in Poole and more power to your elbow. I hope that your hard work will be noticed by other Libraries who will build upon it and give children elsewhere the opportunity of becoming RAMW millionaires too.