Rougemont School case study
Rougemont School is a co-educational, independent school in Newport, South Wales, with over 700 students across its Nursery, Prep and Senior schools. The school was ranked ‘Top 5 Schools in the country’ in 2023 by the Sunday Times Parent Power and, despite not being highly academically selective, achieved the best A Level results in South East Wales in 2021 and 2022. Rougemont’s educational ethos centres around building character and empowering each student to be an enthusiastic lifelong learner and a global citizen of the future.
We caught up with the librarian and Head of English at Rougemont School to share their journey with Reading Cloud over the last 11 years. Read on to find out about their story.
About the school
Rougemont has been a Reading Cloud school for 11 years and its Learning Resources Administration Manager, Annette Jones, has been managing the library for the last 6 years, starting in the September before Covid hit the UK. She reports directly to the Head, underlining the whole-school priority of library provision at Rougemont.
The reading culture at Rougemont
Reading is a core part of the curriculum at Rougemont School, and the library is greatly valued. The school is led by Lisa Pritchard, a highly supportive former Head of English and former Head of Rougemont’s Prep School for 10 years before her current appointment. The current Head of English and the English department are based adjacent to the library, and they also play a crucial role in supporting library reading initiatives and contributing to library strategy. The library also counts on great support from Heads of Departments. Annette says, “Our pupil librarians have responsibility for dedicated shelves in either fiction or non-fiction. I encourage them to talk regularly to their Head of Subjects to find out what they would like to see in the library and to review the current shelf content. Their support is invaluable, particularly in coordinating with students to create displays that meet the evolving needs of the curriculum. This collaboration ensures that our students are constantly engaged with relevant and enriching reading materials, highlighting the vital role of reading in their education.”
The library serves mainly students from Years 5 to 13, fostering a strong reading culture. Students in upper Prep are particularly enthusiastic, eagerly visiting the library and borrowing books. This passion for reading continues into Senior school, particularly up to Year 8, although it tends to wane slightly by Year 9 when borrowing books may seem less appealing. This early exposure to the library environment in upper Prep significantly increases students’ usage of the library and eases their transition into Senior school. Annette says, “Having Years 5 and 6 students over to the Senior school library has a very positive impact on their continued borrowing in Years 7 and 8 because they’re already comfortable in the library environment, know what we can offer them, and how to use the Reading Cloud system.”
As a ‘through-school’ Rougemont is currently testing a switch between the Primary and Secondary Reading Cloud interface. Junior Library stock has transferred this month to a dedicated collection in the Senior Library for September 2024. Years 3-4 will begin to make regular visits and will be the first to test the Primary interface, once fully tested and launched. Students are encouraged to recommend books for the library shelves, ensuring a diverse and relevant collection that reflects their interests. Annette says, “By involving students in the selection process, we create a library that is more representative of their preferences, rather than relying solely on teachers or myself to make these choices. Our philosophy is to empower children to choose what they want to read, encouraging them to challenge themselves and explore new ideas.”
A team of 18 pupil librarians have been appointed, using the School Library Association pupil librarian framework. They’re mostly from Years 8 and 9, but the team includes KS4 Duke of Edinburgh volunteers who take on short term special projects. They all play a significant role in creating diverse and interesting displays, stock management and creating a buzz around the library in their year groups. Annette says, “They act as library ambassadors too, supporting induction of new students throughout the year, helping students in the library, promoting subscribed resources and coming up with – and acting on – some brilliant ideas”. Some have been trained on Reading Cloud to support with cataloguing and the auditing process. “Pupil librarians are encouraged to understand whole process, from ordering a book to its disposal”, says Annette. “It’s great for the school and for the students. They really enjoy what they do, and some of them are quite addicted – they can see what we’re trying to do and love working on projects, alone or together. I have been astounded by their energy, enthusiasm and contribution over the past 2 years.”
Annette encourages the use of the library among teachers and staff, enrolling everyone into the Reading Cloud library system. This allows them access to over 18,000 available titles and over 16,000 LinksPlus, curated by Carel Press. This helps them to serve as advocates, fostering a love of reading amongst their students.
Rougemont’s journey with Reading Cloud
When Annette arrived at the school, she realised they weren’t using the Reading Cloud library software to its fullest potential and she was keen to learn more about its functionality, “I was feeling my way in the dark. When first installed, I believe the system was initially used as intended, but due to staff changes it had been used for some years just for cataloguing, issuing and returning books. It was clear that the system could offer so much more. The key for me was to speak to the Customer Success Team at Reading Cloud, ensuring I had Administrator access to all functions, then to build my knowledge through an incredibly helpful series of user webinars, expert knowledge base and support team. Additionally, 1:1’s with Customer Success corrected and refined inherited system settings, so that I could deliver what I wanted to achieve.”
Annette says, “The webinars and one-to-one sessions were fantastic. The team are so knowledgeable on how the platform should work in schools and so approachable. I feel completely confident using the system now.” Covid offered an opportunity for major data tidying and Annette says she spent a few happy months digging around to spot gaps and issues with inherited variable data, to better understand what should be on the shelves and to plan changes in library sections. Pupils were provided with online access when the library reopened, and many now use it (and the Reading Cloud App) on a day to day basis. A third party data feed through Wonde now links Reading Cloud with the School’s Management Information System, providing a seamless process for starters and leavers. Annette says, “The support to manage that change, both from Reading Cloud and Wonde was incredible.”
Two of the features Annette really values are ‘Reading Lists’ (which can be tailored for individuals, years or subjects) and ‘Links’, where Annette has centralised Rougemont’s subscribed resources and sites of interest for pupils and staff and regularly publicises additions and changes.
The library’s first audit using Reading Cloud was completed last year. Annette found the process very simple and says, “The pupil librarian team learned valuable skills, and the library catalogue (and school asset register) are much more accurate as a result.”
Over the past 6 years, using the platform daily, Annette has been able to see first-hand the improvements Reading Cloud is consistently making to the look and feel and user experience. She says, “Reading Cloud is unrecognisable from what it was six years ago; the change from when I first saw it to what it is now is quite remarkable. Functionality is improving all the time and as a beta tester, I like being part of the journey to improve it and so do the pupil librarians. The team really want to get it right and to produce a product that helps both the school and its students on their reading journey.”
Annette says about the recently enhanced homepage interface, “Reading Cloud is available from a dedicated button on our School website home page and has a professional but friendly feel. Existing and prospective parents, students and staff can view our home page, search our catalogue and access Links without having to log in – but the sign-on process has been massively improved with the introduction of Google Single Sign-On earlier this year. Having everything in one platform and so accessible makes life so much easier. Most of the information on the homepage can be customised – it’s a lovely way to present the school library.”
With the recently updated avatars, Annette has also seen increased interest in the library. She says, “I’ve been surprised by seeing children creating their Reading Cloud avatars and some of those children are not regular library users, so they’re finding out through the grapevine and logging into the platform to explore.”
Reading Cloud is an intrinsic part of promoting reading for pleasure, helping the school share its vast array of books. Alice Mintowt-Czyz, Head of English (Senior School) said, “Reading Cloud allows pupils to engage independently and proactively with their own reading. They can gain access to the library’s catalogue, discovering new authors and texts, or reviewing and promoting books for other students. Putting the power in pupils’ hands, at the touch of a button, is probably the thing that Reading Cloud does best – and there seems to be even greater potential to hand over this kind of agency to learners at Rougemont.”
“As a school, we can also track reading trends and patterns, as well as identifying “Top Readers”, acknowledging this effort on occasions like Speech Day. This helps in promoting the school’s reading culture, part of the fabric of the school and something to be celebrated.”
“Reading lists can be developed by all Heads of Subject to promote reading and to target particular sub-sets of students. The lists on Reading Cloud are nicely designed and easily navigated, hopefully taking some of the ‘analysis paralysis’ out of choosing a book, especially at the start of a course at GCSE or A-level.”
Final words
Annette says, “Firstly, Reading Cloud makes you proud of what you can collectively achieve using the platform. Of course, it’s fantastic for issuing and returning books, as well as for auditing but it’s also great for promoting reading with all the functionality on the homepage. We are absolutely satisfied with Reading Cloud as a solution for our school.”
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