Please share your ideas for small school library!

[confusedofengland]

I have been asked to help revamp the Junior school library, of the school that Ds1 & DS2 attend. I already run a Book club there & am trying to encourage the children to visit the village library & also to set up some class visits.

I've had a Google & have a few ideas for the school library - which is really more of a book corner than anything- but I'd appreciate any further ideas. I'm thinking bright colours, bean bags, cushions & maybe a lava lamp or similar as it is quite a dark area.

As I say, it is a relatively small area & also the school has little to no funds to spend on this, so I'm looking at creative ideas & asking for donations from parents (which are usually very forthcoming).

some pillows like those, a rug, coloured lights (you can just get regular lamps and then use coloured lightbulbs). you could print out a big version of your school's logo in black and white, then ask each class to paint/colour a small bit of it and then put it up on the wall x

I would ask on any local community pages if people have any of the bits to donate. I am guessing bean bags and cushions would work well and people may have them but not know where to donate them

We are a very (very) small school, we visit the local library weekly as we don’t have space for one.

Over the summer, we bought a shed, painted it red, filled it with books, bunting, covered the walls to make it look like trees. Bought woodland cushions and bean bags. The children love it. Also currently works as an intervention space whilst it’s warm and dry.

Some great ideas here! I particularly love the shed idea. Thank you.

Please look into a CD player for audio books with head phones
Some take several sets of head phones at once - so you can include those struggling to read

Also think about writing events - local writers or newspaper editors
Detective mornings
We have reading challenges, collecting stickers for book review or painting of books they’ve read

Get the kids in the door for other reasons, maybe art book themes or design a monster or gruffalos friend

You could also arrange a book swap or kids book club
Maybe include some drama so you have puppets or finger puppets or characters from this weeks book
Set up a FB page for new and exciting ideas, even coffee mornings for mums and tots

Where are you based? Here in Scotland, the Scottish book trust run live author events which they can fully or partially fund. There is bound to be similar schemes where you are. I work in secondary and things that work in libraries for teens are reading nooks, even a small "den" or teepee can work for this. Having regular events and themes keeps them engaged, recommended reads, having some kids volunteer to help run and organise things, fairy lights and comfy places to sit.

I'd be a wee bit more concerned about the books than fussing about with bean bags. Kids will sit on the floor to enjoy appealing and attractive reading material.
Find out if your local authority still has any kind of schools' library service at all.
An appeal on local social media might generate some donations of books, but be utterly ruthless about what you keep.
A good rule of thumb is not to have anything older than the oldest child in the school. Obviously keep classics and standards of both fiction and non-fiction, but check publication/edition dates.

Have a look at this and see if you can get the school to apply
www.foylefoundation.org.uk/how-to-apply/state-schools.php

a pretty lamp is a nice idea, but not a lava lamp, they get hot and break too easily and not all juniour school children will have the sense not to touch. Maybe a bubble lamp?

My favourites of the book corners I have made are:

a 3d tree in the corner with it's branches spread out across the ceiling with strings of leaves hanging down, so it felt like you were sitting under a willow tree. I used a carpet tube, a lot of papier mache and crepe paper.

Under the sea, I bought a bed canopy like this one and some cheap dress netting in different shades of blue, which I sewed on in strips going down, with a few little pockets in that held plastic fish.

Hogwarts, I spent hours making papier mache candles and hanging them from the ceiling with invisible thread and had a few old books hanging to look like they were floating (which I'd rescued from a bin and just stuck new covers on with titles like A History of Magic and The Standard Book of Spells)

All 3 had a selection of beanbags and cushions on the floor.

I think some shelves along all the walls to maximise storage. If that's not possible maybe some boxes organised by author or genre.As I help to decorate and organise libraries myself I have seen some chairs with overhead storage obviously not nessecary but helpful.Some regular chairs definitely but you might also want a pile of beanbags for comfort. I completely understand if my ideas are to expensive or extravagant.