This was one of the first projects to be approved by the Cultural Hub partnership.  In Bournemouth it included the Lighthouse, St Peters Secondary School and Bournemouth Libraries.  We had a long lead in time, which helped us to develop the project and expand on ideas. 

The key elements of the project were stories/drama/creative writing.  The Lighthouse proposed that the Little Wonder Theatre Company give a performance of their work entitled the Librarian’s Joke, to pupils from St Peters with preparatory drama workshops beforehand.  Instead of staging the performance in a theatrical venue we decided it would be held in the library during standard opening hours, thus putting the drama in context.  Libraries have a state of the art, new Bournemouth Library with plenty of flexible space so full use was made of the venue.

Children’s librarians (public and school) were involved throughout and provided a continuous thread.  After the workshops pupils from Year 7 – 120 in the morning and 120 in the afternoon on 15 March came to Bournemouth Library.  They were split into smaller groups toured the library and took part in mini workshops focussing on key areas – Children’s, Teen, Music and Heritage Zones to give them a flavour of libraries.  The performance followed on from this.  Back in school they were tasked with creating their own stories on a subject of their choice.  To assist with this process children’s author and BAFTA award winning screenwriter Peter Corey spent a day with these young people.  The final stage was the exhibition of their work in Bournemouth Library.  The Mayor of Bournemouth opened this and the young people that attended selected a prize book to keep.  An edition of the classic tale – Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book was signed by the Mayor, the Head of Information, Culture and Community Learning and gifted to St Peters School library from Bournemouth Libraries in commemoration of the project.  These stories will form a book.

There were some tangible benefits and positive outcomes from this project for the partners and children who took part.  Children gained a greater understanding of libraries, the range of stock and what they have to offer today.  Their knowledge of books and stories/ works of the imagination in particular was broadened.  They were shown how stories could come alive off the page and viewed as pieces of drama as well as creative writing through the assistance of experts in their field – theatre company, librarians, and children’s author who was also a screenwriter.   Each partner worked well together, we got to know each other a lot better and discovered what our strengths were.  Library staff were enabled to make links with staff from the school for other forthcoming projects.  However the best outcome for Libraries was that the school recognised the value of the work for their pupils and want to run a similar project each year for Year 7s.  The partners looked at the key features to make it sustainable without having to rely on external funding.

Written by Heather Young- Children’s Librarian, Bournemouth Library