Subject: Reading for Pleasure, School Library Advice
Focus: A week in the life of a Creative Learning Services librarian.
Librarian’s view:
All Schools’ Library Services around the country are different but we all agree that no two weeks are the same! The role of a Creative Learning Services (CLS) Librarian is to support schools to provide the best school libraries possible, to select new and diverse books for schools to borrow and to create engaging learning and reading for pleasure opportunities for Primary, Secondary and SEND pupils and students. Cassie Hands, one of the CLS Librarians for Leicestershire and Leicester City schools highlights the range of visits, planning and preparation for sessions and creative ideas needed during a week in the Autumn term of 2025.
Written in the Story Stars
A week in the life of a Creative Learning Services librarian is never the same twice. I love the variety and scope of my role, and this article is a glimpse into the range of work I do on an average week.
As I’m writing, it’s the middle of the Autumn term and I had some booktalking sessions in a secondary school mid-week. Booktalking is where the CLS librarians host a reading for pleasure session in which we promote new, exciting and diverse titles. Each session is unique and is tailored to the ability and age of the class and this week I am working with four mixed ability Year 7 classes. The collections I put together for these groups to loan to the school featured fiction books plus some quicker reads, graphic novels and non-fiction. A variety of genres is important and making sure the books are representative, diverse and engaging for all kinds of readers.
As part of my role I manage a portfolio of subscribing primary and secondary schools in the local area. Throughout the week I’ve answered enquiries via email, for example – organising dates for school staff CPD sessions for next term, providing tailored book recommendations for a primary school teacher, finding mutually suitable dates for a School Library Support session, discussing a potential for an empowering female readers book club and booking in schools to visit CLS to pick their own loan stock with students.
I’ve been working on a few in-house and partnership projects this week too. This year I want to be able to share regular book reviews from students on our social media platforms. I’ve been working on book review templates, guidelines and permission forms for primary school reviewers – who will be known as our Story Stars, and secondary school reviewers-our Bookfluencers. I have lots of keen reviewers ready to go any day now!
My line manager Nicole and I are hosting a poetry CPD session for primary school staff later this month, so I’ve spent some time this week working on this with Nicole. This session is one of the termly mini conferences and training days that are hosted by our colleagues at Whatever It Takes, a local literacy initiative in Leicester, in partnership with ourselves and the Leicester Libraries team. This session will run as a twilight meeting online and has been designed in response to feedback from delegates from previous events.
This week I’ve also be working on updating the e-instructions for our schools on how to order certain resources via our website’s online catalogue. These updates will provide detailed step-by-step instructions for schools to be able to browse and select resources themselves, saving them time and allowing them to explore our collections more thoroughly, thus working as a marketing tool too.
It’s definitely been a computer-based week this week! I’ve also spent some time updating the slides for one of our CPD sessions for primary schools called Creating a Reading Culture to make sure the research mentioned is up to date and that the ideas suggested are fresh and fun. I’ve a Family Reading Café session in a couple of weeks so I’ve been looking at the slides for that too and tailoring it to the audience in question which is nursery and early years children and their families.
One of the remaining items on my to do list for this week is to do our weekly book buy. Each week a different member of the library team is on the rota to look at the new releases from our book supplier. We take time to go through the list and select books to buy based on what we think our schools would be interested in borrowing.
Our service is a combination of three strands (library, museum education and art) so our office is always buzzing with creative idea and interesting conversations. This week there’s been a debrief discussion after one of our new Sensory Story sessions was piloted in a special school, we’ve had a school visit to pick this year’s Artworks and our workshop leaders have been busy delivering Remembrance assemblies.
Next week is bound to be full of different work again – it’s fair to say that at CLS, we are more than just bookworms and that the life of a Schools Library Service librarian is far from dull!
CLS offers an annual modular service for all key stages at primary, secondary and special schools that enables you to create the package that meets your school’s needs and budget. Using our amazing collections and professional expertise, we deliver engaging learning opportunities to support the curriculum, inspire pupils and students, and equip staff in schools with knowledge and skills. All of our services are designed to save you time and to fit within your budget.
- Creative Learning Serviceshttps://sls-uk.org/author/creative-learning-services/
