Jack Hunt School Eclipse Professional Case Study
Jack Hunt School and Language College is a large 11 -18 Foundation
School with 1,400 students currently on the role.
The School is truly comprehensive with a rich multi-
The aims of the library are based on the belief that;
cultural intake and an inclusive philosophy. Value Added
is very high and the school is in the top 25% schools for
•
High levels of reading are essential to raise student
Value Added in the Country. The School also has Leading
literacy levels and that reading skills are the
Edge Status and is a Training School.
foundation for success in all areas of the curriculum.
A successful Library will play a decisive role in the
The Library Resource Centre plays a key role in the
promotion of literacy and a love of books and reading.
success of the School, with levels of usage and book
borrowing which are exceptionally high when compared
•
That the Library Resource Centre should play
with national figures. All curriculum areas are actively
an active role in the development of students as
involved in using the Library Resource Centre to teach
confident independent learners, equipped to thrive
independent learning skills in a programme which
in an information rich global economy. In order to
includes all year groups within the School. The Library
achieve this. Library staff should work in partnership
Resource Centre has also provided a focus for the
with teachers to teach developing research skills using
development of pupil literacy through working intensively
both books and ICT in a sustained manner in all areas
with pastoral teams and English staff.
of the curriculum in a systematic and progressive way.
Why MLS?
Existing users felt that the system was user friendly and robust in its operation with few major problems occurring. I have set
up four primary school libraries over the last five years through Beacon School partnership work and have put the mls Junior
Librarian package in each library. Staff, pupils and parents were very enthusiastic about the system and liked the features it
had to offer. I have led training days for school library resource centre staff for a number of years and I was impressed by the
loyalty of existing MLS customers and their enthusiasm about the Eclipse software.
“When I spoke to MLS they were able to understand why I needed
particular types of information and promised to produce the reports I
need, which they are busily doing at the present time.”
They seemed to have a vision which encompassed continuous product development in response to customer requirements.
I like the finger print recognition system and thought my pupils would borrow more books if they did not need to have a
library card with them.
Our Library Resource Centre handles around 27,000 issues per year and I felt that Eclipse Pro would be robust enough to
handle this volume of work, which so far has proved to be true. I have worked with a number of systems over the last twenty
years, while I have been working in educational libraries, and have been using Heritage for seven years.
Jack Hunt School Eclipse Professional Case Study
“I have always liked Heritage, but my requirements for statistical
information have become increasingly complex and it was very difficult
or impossible to extract the information I required from Heritage.”
In my view Heritage has been slow to respond to the changing
identify the differences of levels of borrowing between
environment in which School Library Resource Centres
form groups in a particular year group. By using a
operate.
system of prizes for pupils and form tutors I have
created a situation whereby forms are competing to see
I am using the change to a new system as a feature of a
which form within a year group can borrow the most
marketing campaign for the School Library Resource Centre
books over a period of time. Staff and students have
with a focus on the key message “Read More, Learn More,
responded well to this and we have tripled the amount
Earn More”. The aim is to make it so that Library use and book
of borrowing from the Library when compared with the
borrowing is not seen as being the preserve of the geeks and
same period last year.
boffins.
Although it may seem that students may just borrow
Book borrowing at our School has been around triple the
books in order to gain a particular prize for their form,
national average for the last twelve years, but I have noticed
I have noticed that students choose the titles they
that the numbers of books borrowed has declined in line with
borrow very carefully and this increases the probability
national figures over the last two years. I felt that the features of
that they will read them.
Eclipse would help me to reverse this trend at my school.
I am able to identify low borrowing forms and to work
The finger print recognition system has stimulated student
with pastoral staff, English staff and staff from other
and staff interest because it is seen as high tech and slightly
subjects to try to create situations which stimulate the
novel. Eclipse have written reports which allow me to easily
students to borrow books and to read.
In the future Eclipse are going to write a report which will
allow me to create a competitive environment between
subject departments. This will allow me to offer prizes to the
staff in a department which encourages students to borrow
the most books in their subject area. I believe that this will
have a significant impact on the types of learning activities
which are written with an emphasis on research based
learning activities which are reliant on print based sources
of information. In the future I plan to use information on
gender and borrowing as a basis for stimulating reading
amongst boys.
Simon Sykes, Librarian
Jack Hunt School