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The Notre Dame School Prep Library

A Guide for Staff

Resources and

information to support teaching

and learning

throughout the school.

Discover and Dream in the Prep Library @ndpslibrary

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The Prep Library was opened in September 2013 combining the former Infant and

Junior Libraries and is used by the whole Prep section of the school from Bluebelles

Nursery to Year 6. The central fiction and non-fiction collections are housed here.

Each class teacher is given an allocation of up to 50 books to be withdrawn from the

library, which may then be retained in the classroom. These can be fiction to supple-

ment their class library or non-fiction to support teaching and learning.

The timetable showing opening times and available lesson times is available on Out-

look and updated regularly. In addition the library and the librarian may be booked

for TASK sessions, research for a particular subject or reading promotion lessons.

These bookings should be made on Outlook with an accompanying email sent to the

librarian outlining the requirements in the way of resources etc.

Resources

Print Resources

Fiction: including picture books, shorter fiction

for emerging readers and general fiction to ca-

ter for all ages and ability levels.

Magazines, comics, First News Newspaper, back

copies of the school’s Friday Mailing.

Back copies of magazines are available on re-

quest for use in the classroom.

Non-fiction: to support and extend the curric-

ulum.

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Non-Fiction in the Prep Library

Historically the non-fiction in the Junior Library had always been shelved according to

the Dewey system. The transfer to the new library accommodation in 2013 provided

the opportunity to rethink this approach.

At present the non-fiction stock has been divided into broad subject areas in order to

better support our TASK topics. Within each subject area the books are then shelved

by Dewey number to aid retrieval. This is similar in some ways to the categorisation

system used in Surrey Libraries so the principal may be familiar to some of our pupils.

The bulk of the non-fiction is kept in the main teaching area of the library however

Leisure and Entertainment, Our Natural World and Religion are in the smaller reading

area.

The reference section houses general encyclopaedias plus encyclopaedias of historical

events, famous people and religions, dictionaries, thesauri, atlases. These books

should ideally be used only in the library and may only be borrowed in exceptional cir-

cumstances.

Each subject area has a sign on the top of the shelves to guide library users except for

Our Natural World which is the orange island unit in the reading area.

Poetry and Fairy Tales are normally classified as non-fiction. In our Prep Library the po-

etry books are housed in one bay in the reading area. Fairy Tales are shelved in the

same bay as the Shorter Fiction titles.

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The different subject areas and a summary of the types of information that can be

found in each section are given below. The lists are an indication only and if you do

not know where the information you are looking for will be found please ask for help.

A table of the main Dewey Decimal Classification groups is provided to assist you.

Ourselves

Families and Relationships – bereavement, bullying, divorce, behaviour. Family trees.

Human Body and Health – exercise, diet, cleanliness, allergies, disabilities, illness,

visiting hospital/dentist/doctor

Life Skills – safety first, decision making, government,

Science

General Science and Technology - experiments, materials, forces, electricity etc.

Maths – including time, measurement.

Space and Space Travel - astronomy

Vehicles and Machines – inventions, transport

History

Ancient World –Ancient Civilisations and Archaeology

History of the World – monarchs, key events.

Life through the Ages – holidays, toys and games, homes, school.

People and Places

Biographies – inspirational people, leaders, authors, celebrities. People who help us

Continents and Countries

Languages – foreign language dictionaries, dual language books, stories in other lan-

guages

Life around the World – everyday life, cultures, traditions, schools, transport, leisure

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Our Natural World

Animals – including extinct and domestic pets

The Earth – geology and ecology, volcanoes, rivers, seas, habitats etc.

Nature – plants, seasons, weather. Farms and farming. Gardening.

Leisure and Entertainment

Arts and Crafts – how to draw and paint, calligraphy, origami, knitting, sewing.

Artists and Paintings – famous artists, styles of painting e.g. impressionism

Hobbies – cooking, jokes and humour, magic tricks, photography, quizzes, general

knowledge

Performing Arts – ballet, dance, music and musicians. Cinema.

Sports – athletics, swimming, tennis etc. Olympics and Olympians.

Religion

Bible – bible stories, old and new testament, saints. Prayers

Religions and Faiths – Islam, Judaism etc. Greek gods and goddesses.

Religious ceremonies and festivals.

Dewey Decimal Classification System

Main Groups Dewey Number

General Knowledge 000 – 099

The Mind 100 – 199

Religion 200 – 299

Everyday Life 300 – 399

Words and Language 400 – 499

Science and Nature 500 – 599

How Things Work 600 – 699

Art and Sport 700 – 799

Poetry and Plays 800 – 899

History and Geography 900 - 999

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Electronic Resources

NDPS Delicious Account: https://delicious.com/ndpslibrary

Collated websites to assist with teaching across the curriculum, in particular

TASK. All links are tagged with keywords to aid retrieval. There is a link to

this site on the staff page of the ND Intranet.

Pinterest Account: https://uk.pinterest.com/annemthompson12/ Boards on a

variety of themes. Teachers may find ‘Books for Assemblies’ and ‘Book Trail-

ers’ especially useful.

School Intranet: Pages of links for both staff and pupils. Research page for

pupils with links to on-line encyclopedias, subject directories and search en-

gines. The TASK page contains links under year group headings for some

topics.

We subscribe to World Book Kids, an on-line encyclopaedia developed es-

pecially for young pupils. The site features image-based navigation, easy-to-

read articles, thousands of images and videos as well as a wealth of engag-

ing games, science projects, and activities.

World Book Kids can be accessed on the girls’ research page on the school

intranet using the following login details - username: notredame11 pass-

word: burwood

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Library Layout and Organisation

This plan shows the current layout of the library.

The following are not marked on the plan: Picture books are

stored in Kinderboxes on either side of the bench and next to

the fiction shelves. Returned books are in the trolley in front of

the whiteboard.

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Fiction

Fiction is shelved in alphabetical order by author surname, starting on the

shelves behind the History shelves and continuing in a clockwise direction

including the white shelves and the adjacent spinner.

There are a number of spinners in the library and near the entrance to the

Lytton Parlour containing fiction by genre/length. The one to the right of

the window contains books on family/friends/diaries/issues etc. Those out-

side the Lytton Parlour house classics and adventure books. Quick reads for

Juniors are in the spinner next to the whiteboard. The shelves on the far

right of the reading area contain books marked with green fiction stickers

suitable for emerging readers.

Accelerated Reader

Books that have quizzes available on the Accelerated Reader website are

marked with a blue sticker giving the book’s level. Some of the older books

may have larger white labels also providing the level.

Junior Librarian

The library catalogue is maintained on Junior Librarian. Net and can be ac-

cessed via the link on the home page of the school intranet. All books bor-

rowed from the library should be scanned out on this system to ensure

efficient stock management and to provide us with useful statistics for

both the reading history of pupils and to guide future stock purchases.

Keeping up to date with Library News

Reading Matters in the weekly Friday mailing provides information from

the library and the world of children’s books and you can follow the library

on Twitter @ndpslibrary too.