Rhyme Time and Seven Quality Principles Toolkit

Rhyme, song and story sessions  for the under-fives and their families happen in almost every library in the country. They are highly valued by our communities.

In 2016/2017 ASCEL received funding from Arts Council England to explore the potential for using their Seven Quality Principles to assess the impact of rhyme times  on families. The Toolkit that we have produced is the result of a close collaboration between 11 library services and supported by expertise from Shared Intelligence and guidance from Booktrust.

The toolkit comprises:

• The framework itself – this is the master document divided into six quality outcomes which were suggested by the initial feedback mapped against the quality principles.
• An observation schedule - enabling staff to observe rhyme times and use the observations as part of an impact, training programme.
• A family survey
• A session leader self-assessment questionnaire - to help staff reflect on their practice.
• Instruction sheet.

The toolkit is flexible so that you can use elements of all of it or focus on a specific tool. Accordingly the files may be downloaded individually or as whole in a compressed (zip) folder.

Also included is the evaluation report which details how the development of the toolkit was undertaken and the impact it has had on the library services and families involved.

We really hope you find it useful!

November 2017