This year Tauranga City Libraries is celebrating 10 years of its ‘Stories at Your Place’ programme - a library outreach programme for junior school students.
A celebration, complete with giant birthday cake to mark the occasion, was held at Welcome Bay School, which has participated in the programme for seven of the 10 years the programme has been running.
Stories at Your Place is designed to promote both the library and a love of books. It runs on Friday mornings during term time with two Children and Teens Programme specialists travelling to schools to present the programme to up to four classes.
Each session contains three stories, with the first book providing a chance for the class to interact as a whole with the story. For the reading of the second book, children are encouraged to stick pieces of felt onto a board to help illustrate the story. The third story is one that is told while some of the students dress up and act it out.
Up to 17 schools are visited each year. In 2021-22 there was 91 sessions, with books read to 1689 children.
Tauranga City Libraries Manager Joanna Thomas says the success of Stories at Your Place is special.
“The librarians set out 10 years ago to reinvent story time by taking it out to schools. I think we have created a new tradition throughout Tauranga schools that is anticipated every year.
“The excitement of the librarians visiting and children participating in the stories is taken home to parents in newsletters or by the kids and then the family visits a library on the weekend or after school.”
Joanna says the feedback from schools is “consistently positive”.
“Teachers like our thoughtful story choices and the engaging ways they are presented and dramatised. They report their students being interested and focused and appreciate the opportunity for their students to hear the art of storytelling.”
Kathryn Absalom, Welcome Bay School Team Leader of Ngā Tipu (Year 0/1), agrees that the programme helps to instil a joy of reading and storytelling.
“The children really enjoy listening to stories and then being involved by dressing up and acting out the stories. The programme also reminds the children that the public library is a place that is accessible to all people in the community.”
Tauranga City Libraries is always looking for new ways to engage with the schools community and has recently appointed a new Mātanga Hōtaka Taiohi Tamariki Māori, Huia Rolleston, who is working across all four library locations as well as community outreach in local kura kaupapa Māori, rumaki (Māori immersion classes) and kōhanga reo.