Introduction

As we are told in the School Library Commission Report School Libraries: a plan for improvement, ‘One of the key agencies which school libraries and school library services could and should be working more closely with is the public library’ (Douglas and Wilkinson, 2010). Stockport Public Libraries was pioneering in offering a structured programme of class visits across the borough and has worked closely with schools to deliver these. This chapter describes how working in partnership with secondary school librarians to deliver a new Year 6 class visit, which takes place in the summer term, dovetails naturally into the national Summer Reading Challenge and both informs and assists the transition from primary to secondary school. As Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners in 2008, said at the launch of the Enjoying Reading project: ‘Children's enjoyment of reading is critical to their life chances but schools alone can't crack this. The Department for Children, Schools and Families believes more joined up working between schools and libraries can make a big difference’ (The Reading Agency, 2008).

The Stockport Libraries perspective

The Stockport Libraries Class Visits programme was developed in 1995 in response to changes in the school curriculum and the need for a consistent offer to schools across the whole borough. Visits are offered to Years 1, 3, 4 and 6 and cover an introduction to the local library, non-fiction books and their arrangement, fiction books and their arrangement, and culminate with the Year 6 visits, which were originally intended to be a recap of what had been learned on previous visits.

Stockport Libraries, the local school librarians and the School Library Service have been working closely together for four years to promote their Year 6 class visits and to begin to use them as a starting-point to advertise the national Summer Reading Challenge, which is, of course, a wonderful opportunity for students to celebrate reading for pleasure over the summer holidays, as well as to encourage them to continue with their reading whilst away from school.