Staff Support

You have two library accounts that are set up by the Library Team when you join WMSF.

• A personal account that enables you to take out up to 10 resources.  The majority of resources are available for two-week loan, although you will also see spine labels indicating loans are Short (3-day) Overnight or as Reference that usually cannot be taken from the Library, although this is discretionary to the Librarians

• A book box account that enables you to take out up-to 25 resources to support your students in the classroom.  Please request these in advance from the Library team, either in person, via email at  Library@wmsf.ac.uk, or by telephoning Ex170.   

• You can always check the status of your loans and make renewals by logging into your Library account with your ID card number. 

Reading lists can be compiled by Lucia.  These contain high-quality hardcopy and digital (including audio-visual) resources to support your student's preparation of homework, coursework, exam revision, and wider reading beyond the standard course materials.  

These will be hosted on your Google Classroom.

Please email Lucia laltala@wmsf.ac.uk to make your reading list requests.

The best way to use reading lists to develop students' content knowledge and comprehension skills is to include them in your instructions to your students, for example, you might instruct that they must use a particular resource/s and reference this in their work.

We are always ready to discuss how to make the collections that we hold, both physical and digital, more finely honed to support teaching and learning at WMSF.  If you wish to discuss additions to the collection or changes to specifications that will require extra resourcing, please speak to your Subject Librarian

Lucia - email latalal@wmsf.ac.uk, Ex: 170

Supporting student’s development of academic and wider literary skills

We are always keen to work with teaching staff to improve our students’ academic and wider literacy skills in person in the Library or your classroom or via Google Classrooms.

When setting your students an essay or report email Library@wmsf.ac.uk, at least three days in advance, so that we can make sure we have appropriate support and resources prepared.

We can plan and deliver training in the Library or your classroom about;

Defining the purpose of a search for information

• cognitive skills in identifying existing knowledge

• thinking skills such as brainstorming or concept mapping

• skills in identifying credible, timely, and appropriate information resources

Finding and selecting information 

• locational skills such as the ability to find information in library catalogues, books, journals, digital platforms, and from the wider web

• selection skills in assessing the relevance of information resources for a stated need

• IT skills in using digital platforms, apps and the wider web

Evaluation and synthesising information

• reading skills including the ability to skim and scan information resources to find relevant information or ideas

• comprehension skills including the ability to understand what is being read, viewed, or listened to and the ability to relate this to existing knowledge

• selective skills including the ability to select the appropriate information and reject information in the context of the purpose identified for using a particular information resource

• evaluation skills including the ability to evaluate information and ideas in relation to aspects such as the currency of the information or ideas, the author, and any possible bias in the text

• recording skills such as the ability to take notes in a systematic way that relates to understanding and purpose

• synthesising skills including the ability to bring together related ideas, facts, and information about a topic and relating this to existing knowledge

• writing or presentation skills including the ability to write an essay or report or project in a well structured, logically ordered manner (including citation and referencing) which uses the information and ideas found to good effect

Self-evaluation of information use

• self-evaluation skills including the ability to reflect on the processes involved in assignment-related work and to identify areas of improvement in the effective use of information resources in the future

We have a subscription to Turnitin Orginality Checker, an industry leading text-matching software that can help you and your students improve compositional quality and guard against inadvertant or deliberate attempts at plagiarism.

Ask Lucia for more advice on how to deploy this powerful software in your teaching and on Google Classrooms.

• Check for similarity against our industry-leading content database

• Reveal text manipulations meant to bypass integrity checks

• Identify code plagiarism in student programming assignments

• Verify originality of student work in possible contract cheating cases

• Students check text similarity and grammar before submitting

• Citation assistant finds missing citations and teaches proper citation/referencing style

• Turnitin Draft Coach checks for similarity while students draft work

CPD for Staff

The Library provides the following range of professional development sessions. Please email Lucia laltalal@wmsf.ac.uk to make your booking.

General Library Induction

This 30-minute session, intended for new staff will familiarise you with;

• The Library team and facilities

• Incorporating Library resources hardcopy and digital resources and expertise into your teaching and students learning

• How the Library can work with you to improve your student's academic skills

• Collection development to support your students

Google and Beyond

This 45min session will introduce you to a range of advanced search techniques for making the most of Google but also applicable to a range of online search engines including;

• How Google works – indexing and results retrieval

• Planning a search and keywording good practice

• Using the advanced features including domain, date, and media-specific searching

Plagiarism: Defining, Dissuading and Detecting

This 45min session will introduce you to current definitions of plagiarism and how it can be mitigated through a combination of assignment design and detection techniques and tools such as Turnitin.

Library Subject Database Sessions

The Library subscribes to a range of reference and subject-specific databases via our Online Databases which can support not only your student’s independent research and wider reading but also assignment creation and your continuing professional development. Each session lasts approximately 30 minutes.

• We have a collection of hardcopy CPD resources that can be borrowed by teaching staff.

• This collection is shelved behind the Library Reference Desk.

• To view our CPD resources using the Heritage Online Catalogue, just enter the two letters pd into the search box followed by your search syntax.

British Educational Research Association Library

The British Educational Research Association (BERA) is a member-led charity that exists to encourage educational research and its application for the improvement of practice and public benefit. The library provides access to the digital version of Research Intelligence and a host of reports and briefing relevant to action-based research in the UK classroom.

British Educational Leadership and Educational Research 

This society is a forum for those interested in research and school leadership. The network is 45 years old and is established in 75 countries. 

Digital Education Repository Archive

The IOE (Institute of Education) UK Digital Education Repository Archive (DERA) is a digital archive of all documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education. The IOE Library has always collected this material in both print and electronic format. Courtesy of dera.ioe.ac.uk

Education Endowment Foundation 

Contains high-quality research summaries, practical evidence-based tools categorised by educational topic, and COVID advise on closing the attainment gap and maximising the positive impact if online learning

JSTOR Education Journals

Available via Athens, JSTOR provides access to over 200 educational journal titles, with the majority of content available in full text. Login by selecting Find Your Institution – William Morris Sixth Form – u/n  wmsfteacher p/w teacher1

National Foundation for Educational Research Research in schools 'how to' guides

This series of concise guides to the methodologies of educational research is written for the busy teacher-researcher.

Research at the Department for Education