Services we offer to early year settings, primary and special schools

Transform your school

Our specialist staff can provide you with advice and practical help with all aspects of library development. We can help you improve your school library by:

• providing advice on layout and design
• assessing and improving your stock
• organising your library cataloguing your books onto your computerised library management system
• delivering library skills sessions training for pupil librarians

Personalised book order service

For our personalised ordering service, we would:

• come into your school for 1 day to audit and assess your current stock
• identify gaps
• prioritise your spending create an order of books based on your budget

The books would then arrive within a few weeks with free plastic jackets, spine and Accelerator Reader (AR) levels, where appropriate.

Bag Books: multi-sensory storytelling

Each story is shared interactively, using multi-sensory objects, with voice and emotion rather than words and pictures.

Bag Books have been found to develop students' reactions to stimuli, develop turn taking and provide the opportunity to participate in a shared activity, as well as enjoying a great story.

Further information can be found on the Bag Books website

Key Stage 1 reading challenge

The Key Stage 1 reading challenge runs in the summer term and aims to:

• motivate children to read regularly and encourage reading for pleasure
• give pupils the opportunity and confidence to talk about books and express their own views
• support literacy development and comprehension
• raise the profile of reading in school and at home

Spellbinding

Our hugely successful annual book award and reading challenge for children in years five and six has helped to encourage thousands of children in Cumbria to read for pleasure and build confidence in talking and writing about books.

More information can be found on the Spellbinding website

Book Bus service

Our Book Buses come to your door to deliver brilliant new titles to excite all our readers encourage reading for pleasure enable pupils to experience a unique library environment.

Choose from 3,000 books including fiction, picture books, easy reads, non-fiction - suitable for all reading levels and interests.

We will email you before the next term starts with the date of the next Book Bus visit. If you’re an academy that’s interested in the Book Bus service, contact us.

Email: library.servicesforschools@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk

Chatterbooks reading groups

Chatterbooks is a nationally recognised network of children’s reading groups coordinated by the Reading Agency with the aim of encouraging reading for pleasure.

We provide all of the resources to enable you to get a reading group off the ground quickly and easily including goodie bags for each child, plenty of books to keep members interested and training from one of our Library for School Services team.

The Chatterbooks offer is open to all Local Education Authority (LEA) schools and academies on a first-come, first-served basis.

Sign up for Chatterbooks

Download and complete the reading groups in schools sign up form (PDF, 889.09KB)

Please register your interest by returning the sign up to the Library Services for Schools team by email.

Book banding: grading reading levels

Contact us if you're considering having your school's books banded.

If you have previously used our service and have some new stock to band ask us about our ad hoc book banding service.

Find out more about these services

You can contact the Library Services for Schools team to find out more.