Martin Winward, Headteacher, St Anne's School, Alderney

Our aim at St. Anne’s School is to teach every child to read and write, and to keep them reading as lifelong learners so that we support the richness that ‘powerful knowledge’ can bring. The Library Learning Centre is central to the work we do in school for pupils of all ages. The ‘love of reading’ is actively promoted and encouraged through a wide range of opportunities. The development work we started in 2017 with Elizabeth Hutchinson has empowered us to not only choose the best books for our children and young people to read but the theory behind what excellent provision looks like. Placing good quality literature at the heart of our school and having highly detailed plans in which to organise our library has changed the way we work beyond all recognition. We’d like to thank Elizabeth for her boldness, thoroughness, and attention to detail in supporting the cultural paradigm shift which now exists in our school.

Robert O'Brien, Principal, Blanchelande College, Guernsey

Having lacked a library space for some years, the opening of a new Sixth Form provided us with a golden opportunity to start with a blank slate. We turned to Elizabeth because of her wealth of experience, knowledge and enthusiasm. Elizabeth offers a personal and approachable service and helped our staff to reflect on the importance of inquiry, information literacy and the role that a library could play in delivering the curriculum; particularly valuable was her introduction to the FOSIL framework. She also delivered accessible school assemblies so that the students were primed for new ways of learning. In terms of developing the physical library, Elizabeth pointed us in the right direction, signposting us to the relevant companies and evaluating the pros and cons of our various options (from choosing a library system, to furniture arrangements, to books and online resources). Finally, when we came to recruiting our inaugural librarian, Elizabeth ensured our person specification covered everything we would need, again using her experience to highlight opportunities and pitfalls that we hadn't foreseen. Without Elizabeth, we would have made many elementary errors! With her guidance, we now have a library and library provision that we're immensely proud of. Blanchelande College is very grateful and highly recommend Elizabeth's input.