How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

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Marylou
Posts: 2164
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:21 am

Re: How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

Post by Marylou »

Good idea about the review! I think they might have to do something like that anyway in the last term. If not, I'll be seeing DS's teacher later so will suggest it.

I didn't ask the reason in the e-mail as I'll be going to see some of the staff later anyway, so will raise the issue then (informally) to try and get to the bottom of it. In any case, as far as I know (as a parent and a governor), none of the school policies makes any reference to restricting library content. Whether or not restrictions are in place is something for the school to decide - what bothers me is that the matter should have been discussed properly and decided upon, and made transparent so that parents know about it, rather than one person unilaterally deciding that a particular book is unsuitable for whatever reason.
Marylou
tokyonambu
Posts: 109
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2010 5:38 pm

Re: How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

Post by tokyonambu »

Marylou wrote:In any case, as far as I know (as a parent and a governor), none of the school policies makes any reference to restricting library content. Whether or not restrictions are in place is something for the school to decide - what bothers me is that the matter should have been discussed properly and decided upon, and made transparent so that parents know about it, rather than one person unilaterally deciding that a particular book is unsuitable for whatever reason.
Precisely. That's how schools get themselves into trouble, when for what might be perfectly plausible reasons they take decisions that they actually don't have legal or procedural cover for. The classic examples are rows about H&S, uniforms and safeguarding concerns; a headteacher suddenly decides that it's OK to insist on goggles for conkers, fingerprint the children, ban skirts of a certain length, erect CCTV or ban videos at the end of term production. With the agreement of the governors, a policy to back it up and a quick spin around parental opinion, all would be well. Just imposed as a fait acompli, it ends up in the newspapers.

My theory is that a lot of schools have got gunshy over complaints. They worry that dealing with a complaint will involve as much effort as losing a court case, so will move heaven and earth to avoid complaints in the first place. It's more likely, in the instant case, that a motivated and focussed (ie, nuts) parent will engage in a barrage of letter-writing and threatened litigation/newspapers/MPs/madstuff over "unsuitable books" than a laid-back Guardian reader will do likewise over a policy of age-limiting, so they impose a policy that serves no-one's interests in order to fend off the worry about the obsessives' complaints.
inkypinkyponky
Posts: 1863
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:41 pm
Location: Gravesend, Kent

Re: How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

Post by inkypinkyponky »

yoyo123 wrote: Northern Lights is a fantastic story, I loved it..it is a bit sad and scary, but good books often are, you get swept into the story
I second that, yoyo. I get so swept up in the trilogy of 'His Dark Materials', that when my kids interupt my reading to say that "can-we-have-dinner-please-we're-absolutely-starving-and-will-pass-out-soon", I look up to wonder why I'm in Gravesend, and not another world. Dinner was only 2 hours late on thursday when I was reading the 2nd book, 'The Subtle Knife' . :oops:

I zoomed through the 3rd book 'The Amber Spyglass' yesterday and today, and so want to travel to the other worlds, I need to meet a mulefa, I'd love to read an alethiometer AND I WANT A DAEMON NOW,NOW, NOW!
scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

Post by scary mum »

AND I WANT A DAEMON NOW,NOW, NOW!
Ooh, me too. Should we start a separate thread in rehab? It might give Scarlett some photo opportunities!
scary mum
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

Post by yoyo123 »

me too, I quite fancy a dwarf hamster as my daemon!
scarlett
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

Re: How to get 10-year-old boys to use the school library...

Post by scarlett »

Mmm.The mind boggles. ...... just found out one of his books is called The Scarlet Slipper. Shall have to just have the photo opportunities in my mind, Unscary ! :P
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