Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services

Category: What you can borrow

  • Search our catalogue

    Search our catalogue

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    Follow this link to search our library catalogue

    • Your reader account requires a PIN to access it. Please contact the library to set up a PIN.

    Reserving items

    • You may reserve up to 5 items at any one time
    • If you wish to book more items then you should use our Request for Resourses service
    • If the resources you reserve are available then we will deliver them to your school.
    • Remember, resources are loaned for a whole term, so if you reserve items that are on loan, they may not become available for some time as we only recall overdue items.

    Hints for searching

    Keywords

    Use curriculum-based keywords such as:

    Science

    Forces, Sound, Space, Planets, Plants, Flowers, Recycling

    Literacy

    Familiar settings, Explanation, Report, Recount, Biographies, Fantasy, Poetry

    Religion

    Holy books, Christianity, Festivals, Sikhism, Buddhism, Islam, Creation

    Other

    Play, Sustainability, Education, Schools, Tudors, Phonics, Cubism

    As you can see, keywords are based on curriculum and literacy strategy terms that you will already be familiar with.

    Limiting your search to a particular area

    Use the drop-down list to search only for big books or artefacts. Otherwise if you’re looking for Roman costumes, just typing in Romans will also return all of our book records.

    You can also use search terms such as KS2, Historical Fiction, Science, Geography, etc along with keywords, for example:

    • Typing ‘Roman costumes’ will return no hits. Use Romans AND costumes, or use keyword ‘Romans’ and select ‘costume collection’ from the media drop-down list.
    • Historical Fiction AND Tudors would just return stories set in Tudor times.
    • Science AND Rivers would ignore most geographical resources on rivers.

    Narrowing your search will return a more manageable set of results.

    Combine terms by either using the Advanced Search OR by using boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT)

    When searching for specific books:
    • Know the author! Many childrens books have the same or similar titles.
    • Know the title! “That green book about bullying with wolves in it” will not help you (although you could search for Bullying AND Wolves and, besides, that book has a blue cover.)
    • If the title is complex (such as Understanding childrens’ errors in primary anarchic activity : a guide for newly qualified teachers by Durden, T) make your life easier by searching for the key words in the title and the author. So Childrens errors Durden will find this book with less risk of spelling errors returning no results.
    Avoid typing…
    •  Long strings such as “Books about issues for the primary and early years”
    • Spelling mistakes – there is no auto correct or prediction.

    This catalogue is not an internet search engine. It cannot perform full-text searches of our books or interpret written questions.

  • eBook platform and ‘The Day’ Newspaper

    eBook platform and ‘The Day’ Newspaper

    eResources banner

    Schools Library Services eBooks platform

    Now searchable by Accelerated Reader levels!

    All subscribing schools can use our eBook lending service.  To receive logins to your accounts, please contact the schools library service. Following the link will allow you to view our eBook stock.

    We are now part of the London Schools Library Services eBook consortium, meaning that schools have access to an even wider range of eBooks.

    Why use our platform?

    • eBook platforms are expensive for schools to set up. Why not use a ready made platform that comes as part of your subscription to our service?
    • No annual running costs or minimum spend requirements on new books
    • No admin worries. Send us your reader data and we will upload it
    • Books selected for their suitability for primary and secondary schools

    Access to the platform at no additional cost is available to:

    • Primary schools with a whole-school subscription to the Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services (e.g. Silver or Gold lending package)
    • Secondary schools subscribing to the current creative literature package

    Other schools may pay an additional subscription for the eBooks package

    About the ePlatform

    Provided via the Wheelers platform, the current collection comprises of popular fiction for ages 9/10 and upwards, many chosen from previous years’ Teen Booklists and Must Reads booklists.

    • The platform is intended for staff and pupils to have direct access to the collection as a 24/7 library
    • The age range of the books is for primary school year 5 up to sixth form
    • Books unsuitable for younger readers are age restricted*
    • Teachers and librarians can use the collection to keep up-to-date with new children’s and young adult fiction.
    • Up to 2 eBooks can be borrowed at a time
    • eBooks are ‘loaned’ for 2 weeks at a time
    • Books can be read online on a PC or downloaded to an eBook reader or any tablet.  Please note that Kindle readers are not compatible, but Kindle Fire tablets are
    • Borrowing and downloading support is available on the platform site

    Teachers interested in using the platform with their school should contact Jacob Turner at the Schools Library Service.

    jacob.turner@towerhamlets.gov.uk

    020 7364 6428

    *Age restrictions are applied by librarians at the schools library services managing the eBooks platforms. Restrictions are based purely on our own judgement and may not be in line with your own views.

    How to start using the platform

    1. Browse the collection and make a decision as to how you wish to use it in your school. Do you want all pupils and staff to have access, or are you going to use it to support smaller reading groups?
    2. Register your staff and pupil users. Email the completed login template for eBooks platform to jacob.turner@towerhamlets.gov.uk
    3. We will contact you to go over essential details about using the platform
    4. Start reading!

    Advice and support

    Advice on how to implement eBooks and eResources in your school, including:

    • Free user groups each term-time Monday
    • Choosing an appropriate platform
    • Inclusion and support, including looking at special educational needs
    • How eBooks can be used in the classroom
    • Legal and copyright questions answered!

    Other eResources

    The Day – daily news service

    Available at a discounted rate via consortium membership

     

  • Posters and Picture Packs

    Posters and Picture Packs

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    Posters

    Covering all curriculum topics including:

    • Science explanations
    • Human body and anatomy
    • Animals and plants
    • Geographical features
    • History and timelines
    • Maps (loacal, continental, world)

    Instructional posters including:

    • PSHE and diversity awareness
    • Anti-bullying
    • Feelings and behaviour
    • Road safety

    Art posters including

    • Portraits
    • World art
    • Art periods and movements form early art to contemporary works
    • Posters and propaganda
    • Architecture

    Picture Packs

    We have picture packs covering all the usual topic areas and some less usual ones! Picture packs can contain between 6 and 30+ images depending on subject.

    Curriculum areas include

    • Religion, including celebrations, symbols and sacred texts
    • All areas of science including plants and animals
    • Geography including maps and islands and pirates
    • Technology and design, including fairground rides and circuses and carnival costumes
    • Art by subject or movement

     

  • Story Tents

    Story Tents

    Story tent banner

    The story tents were developed by the HEC Global Learning Centre – now Global Learning London – in partnership with several Tower Hamlets schools. These tents are available to borrow for your school for a whole term or just for a few days. They can be used as part of a class topic or with a professional storyteller.

    Full details of storytents (pdf document)

    Each story tent contains:

    • Eight illustrated side panels
    • A box of supporting resources
    • Teacher’s information pack including:
    • background information
    • how to utilise the ‘StoryTent’ as a class, year or whole school initiative
    • National Curriculum schemes of work
    • literacy hour lesson plans
    • ideas and activities
    • details of cross-curricula links
    • Instructions for putting up your tent

  • Literacy & Numeracy Collection

    Literacy & Numeracy Collection

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    Our literacy and numeracy collection holds dedicated booksets, big books and games.

    Guided reading and other booksets:

    • Sets of 6 or 7 books for shared reading (counts as 1 item on your ticket)
    • Banded reading sets for KS1 (see below for levels)
    • KS1 Phonics Bug booksets
    • Fiction and non-fiction booksets for KS2
    • Sets of picturebooks by literacy strand
    • Numeracy sets of big and small books by theme

    Catch-up

    Games:

    • Board games and card games
    • Phonics games
    • Spelling, word blends, synonyms, and other language types
    • Number operation and counting games
    • Basic to upper primary levels
    • Literacy and numeracy games for PCs and Macs (no site licence required)

    Big Books:

    We have a special collection of Big Books arranged by language type, including:

    • Patterned language
    • Genre
    • Traditional
    • Other cultures
    • Plays
    • Poetry
    • Report/ Recount
    • Discussion/ Persuasion
    • Significant authors
    • Familiar settings

    We support the following reading bands at Key Stage 1:

    Standard KS1 Colour Bands cover publishers including Pearson, Badger and Collins

    Guide to NC Level Book Band (standard) Year Group Stage within the programme of study Reading Recovery LevelApprox phonics phaseRead Write Inc.Oxford Reading Tree
    Stepping StonesPinkRSecure1-22  
    Stepping StonesRedRMore able3-53Green/ Purple 
    1cYellow1Beginning6-83/4PinkGreen L2
    1c/1bBlue1Beginning9-114/5OrangeGreen L2
    1b/ 1aGreen1Developing12-145OrangeBlue L3
    1b/ 1aOrange1Developing15-165/6YellowRed L4
    1a/ 2cTurquoise1Secure17-185/6Yellow/ BlueYellow L5/ Orange L6
    2c/ 2bPurple1More able/ Mastering19-206Blue/ GreyOrange L6
    2c/ 2bPurple2Beginning19-206GreyLevel 7/8
    2bGold2Developing21-226n/aLevel 9
    2aWhite2Secure23-24n/an/aLevel 10
    3cLime2More able/ Mastering25-26n/an/aLevel 10/11

    Key stage 2 Guided Reading sets are arranged by Dewey Decimal classification although we stock Ruby to Diamond level books from a variety of reading schemes.

    Guide to NC Level Book Band (Collins Big Cat) Book Band (Pearson)Book Band (Badger)Oxford Reading Tree Year Group Stage within the programme of study Reading Recovery Level (approx.)
    3cLimeLimeLimeLevel 11/ 123Beginning25-26
    3c/ 3bCopperBrownBrownLevel 133Developing26
    3b TopazBrownBrownLevel 143Secure26-27
    3b/ 3aTopaz/ RubyGreyGreyLevel 14/153/4More able/ Mastering (3) Beginning (4)27
    3aRuby/ EmeraldGreyGreyLevel 164Developing27
    4cEmeraldGreyGreyLevel 174Secure28
    4c/ 4bSapphireBlueDark BlueLevel 17/184/5More able/ Mastering (4) Beginning (5)28-29
    4bSapphire/ Diamond BlueDark BlueLevel 195Developing29
    4b/ 4aDiamondBlueDark Blue/ Dark RedLevel 205Secure29-30
    4aDiamondBlue/ RedDark RedLevel 205/6More able/ Mastering (5) Beginning (6)30
    4a/ 5cDiamond/Pearl RedDark Red/ Black 6Developing 
    Within L5PearlRedDark Red/ Black 6Secure 
     PearlRedDark Red/ Black 6More able/ Mastering 

     

     

     

  • Multi-Sensory Stories

    Multi-Sensory Stories

    Storybox

    Multi-sensory story sets are a great way to explore storytelling with children with special educational needs.

    We source these sets from Bag Books and have a large variety to choose from for KS1 to KS3

    Each story pack consists of ‘pages’ to which are attached a variety of objects that feature in the story. The storyteller is free to hand the props to the listeners and invite interaction.

    Search our catalogue for multi-sensory stories

     

     

  • Story props, artefacts & costumes

    Story props, artefacts & costumes

    Enrich the curriculum and inspire your pupils (and teachers!) with fantastic artefacts, props and costumes for all topics, performances and occasions.

    Costumes

    Our costumes can make a school performance come to life, or add depth to any classroom activity.

    • Perfect for history, geography, drama, citizenship, or art
    • Adult and childrens’ sizes
    • Historical costumes from ancient world to Britain since 1930
    • Contemporary costumes from around the world
    • Uniforms/people who help us
    • Drama and pantomime

    How many costumes can I borrow?

    • Unlimited number of costumes

    Local History Artefacts

    In 2022 the Schools Library Services launched ‘This is Our History‘, our local history project, continued in 2025 with the creation of multi-sensory stories. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, it covers the following themes:

    • The Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888
    • The Blitz and the Bombing of the East End
    • East London Bengalis
    • Somali East End
    • London Docklands
    • The Huguenot silk weavers

    Artefacts boxes that are also used as sensory stories

    • A dockworker’s day at West India Quay
    • A journey to West india Quay from Barbados
    • The Est End Suffragettes
    • The Jewish East End
    • The Battle of Cable Street
    • Ragged Schools

    This is Our History page

    The Matchgirls Strike set
    The Ragged Schools set

    Historical Artefacts

    Enrich your history topics with one of our artefacts collections. Artefacts can be an expensive purchase for your school, so why not borrow them instead? Each box contains up to 40 artefacts.

    • Abolition of Slavery
    • Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome
    • Ancient Rome – Museum of London collection (includes original roman artefacts in addition to replicas)
    • Anglo Saxons
    • Bengalis in East London
    • The Blitz
    • Britain Since 1930
    • The British Empire & East India Company
    • Explorers
    • Fifties and sixties Britain
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Homes (early 20th century)
    • Islamic Golden Age
    • London Docklands
    • Mary Seacole
    • Matchgirls
    • Pirates
    • Shang Dynasty
    • Somali East End
    • Stone age to Iron age
    • Toys and Games
    • ‘Tracks through Poplar’ (steam railways)
    • Tudors
    • Victorian Britain
    • Vikings
    • The Windrush Generation
    • World War 2
    • Writing and Printing
    KS1 History artefacts
    Toys from History
    Stone Age to Iron Age

    Single historical artefacts are also available, including:

    • Artefacts from all of the above eras
    • Ancient Benin
    • Medieval History
    • History within living memory
      • Toys and home computers/ consoles from the 70s, 80s and 90s*
      • Music playback, including a working gramophone, reel to reel, walkmans, etc*
      • Typewriters
    • Navigation and exploration
    • Treasure chests (empty)

    *Electroninc and electrical historical artefacts are usually non-working and for display/ examples only.

    How many artefacts can I borrow?

    • Unlimited single artefacts where available
    • One historical artefacts box per teacher (and no more than one of each type per school)

    Technology that kids won’t believe we had!
    Benin Bronze Leopard

    Our Global History

    Our Global History a series of classroom resources – Artefacts, books and more – researched and produced by the Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services with generous funding from the Aldgate & Allhallows Foundation.

    The resources have been designed to support the Towards an Anti-Racist Curriculum training for Tower Hamlets Schools which has engaged schools in examining how they teach the National Curriculum to reflect the backgrounds and experiences of children in Tower Hamlets schools.

    Our aim is to provide teachers with a wider range of resources to enable them to adequately diversify the curriculum and show them how to plan the de-colonised curriculum.

    The following boxes and accompanying book and online resources are now available

    • The Shang Dynasty
    • The Islamic Golden Age
    • The Windrush Generation
    • The British Empire & The East india Company

    Links to the online resources

    The Islamic Empire
    The Shang Dynasty

    Artefacts from Around the World

    Bring a global dimension to your classroom.

    International artefact boxes include:

    • Shahnameh : The Phoenix of Persia : Iran/ Persia and traditional tales. Produced in collaboration with Tiny Owl Books.
    • Dolls from around the world (boxes for different countries & continents)
    • Where in the World is Barnaby Bear? / Weatherby Bear? / Benita Bear?
    • Countries, including Modern Egypt, France, Australia, Poland
    • Bengal History
    • Deforestation
    • Adinkra and Kente Cloth
    • Olympic Games

    The Shahnameh box
    Costume dolls from around the world

    Individual items can support:

    • International celebrations
    • Black History Month
    • Chinese New Year

    are from:

    • Africa
    • Middle East
    • South America
    • North America
    • India and Bangladesh
    • Europe
    • China
    • Japan

    and include:

    • Textiles and flags for displays
    • Everyday items
    • Festival items
    • Masks
    • Musical instruments
    • Puppets
    • Toys made from recycled materials

    Toys made from recycled materials

    Religious Artefacts

    Artefacts can help pupils gain insight into complex subjects like world faiths and religion.

    • Holy books
    • Celebrations and festivals
    • Christianity
    • Islam
    • Buddhism
    • Sikhism
    • Hinduism
    • Kwanzaa
    • Prayer
    • Religious clothing
    • Weddings

    Buddhism set

    Science Artefacts

    We have a wide selection of artefacts to help teach a range of science topics:

    • Human skeletons
    • Model body parts
    • Teeth
    • Habitats and food chains
    • Lifecycles
    • The Solar System
    • Rocks and fossils
    • Magnets

    The Human body

    Story Props and Sets

    Props and puppets to make any story come to life. Add an extra dimension to your storytelling or literacy sessions, or use a persona doll for PSHE and citizenship.

  • Books

    Books

    We can provide selections of the best books tailored to your needs, from supporting the curriculum to creating an anti-racist classroom or just to encourage reading for pleasure.

    Borrowing entitlement

    • Up to 70 items per ticket at any one time
    • Up to six copies of the same book per ticket
    • A selection of class reading sets (15+ copies)
    • Up to 500 fiction/ picture books on a whole-school ticket (permanent loan* for the school library or class book corners)

    Fiction

    • Story books and novels from primary to sixth-form level, including class sets
    • Fiction and picturebooks supporting Philosophy for Children
    • Picture books for young and older readers
    • Books exploring diversity themes including black history, gender, disabilities, LGBT, age and class equality
    • Graphic novels and Manga
    • Book and CD packs
    • Reading for pleasure, or supporting a literacy target
    • High interest – low reading level books
    • Annual Teenage Booklist, Must Reads and Takeoff! booklists
    • The annual Tower Hamlets Book Award

    Non-Fiction

    Books to support all primary and secondary curriculums

    • A continually evolving collection covering the topics that YOU need
    • Non-fiction for reading for pleasure
    • Early years to secondary

    Class sets

    • Sets of class readers. 15 copies in each set
    • Fiction for all year groups
    • Choose from our expanding list of sets
    • We can buy class sets to order. Please place orders at least 4 weeks before you need to use them.

    Dual Language

    Books in over 40 languages
    • Afrikaans
    • Albanian
    • Amharic
    • Arabic
    • Bengali
    • Bulgarian
    • Chinese
    • Czech
    • Farsi
    • French
    • Gaelic
    • German
    • Greek
    • Gujerati
    • Gypsy
    • Hausa
    • Hebrew
    • Hindi
    • Ibo
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Kurdish
    • Lacota
    • Lao
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian
    • Malayam
    • Mongolian
    • Nepali
    • Norwegian
    • Patois
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Punjabi
    • Pushtu
    • Romanian
    • Russian
    • Serbo-Croatian
    • Shona
    • Slovakian
    • Somali
    • Spanish
    • Swahili
    • Tagalog
    • Tamil
    • Tibetan
    • Turkish
    • Twi
    • Ukrainian
    • Urdu
    • Vietnamese
    • Welsh
    • Yoruba
    • Zulu

    The Schools Library Services has a large collection of dual language and foreign language books for you, whether you’re teaching another language, supporting children with English as an additional language, or engaging with parents with English as an additional language.

    • Storybooks, spoken word, dictionaries and teaching aids

    Big books, literacy and numeracy

    • Fiction and non-fiction big books
    • Organised by literacy hour genre as well as alphabetical and subject order
    • See our Literacy & Numeracy page for more about our big book collection and book banding

    Books banner 2

    *Permanent loan books must be returned if the school ceases a subscription to the library.

  • Request for Resources Form

    Request for Resources Form

    Anti-Racist Support for Schools

    Training and support provided by Global Learning London with books and resources provided by the Schools Library Services

    Find out more : https://towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/antiracist/

    Order your books and other resources online

    Please fill in the request form at the bottom of this page,

    • Please do not email forms as attachments.
    • Resources ordered for the Autumn Term will be on loan to you until the Christmas Holiday
    • If you are also asking for your old resources to be collected, please have them ready in the designated pick-up point in your school as our driver will not have time to collect crates from classrooms.
    •  Do not put new request forms in crates being returned to the library.
    Hints for completing your form
    • We will contact you via email if there are any queries about your request. Please use an email address that you regularly check – we do not share your email with any other organisations.
    • Please be as specific as possible with topics. If a topic has a title that could be misinterpreted, or for topics like ‘Animals including humans’ that have specific requirements, please list which subjects are covered by that topic.
    • If a topic has a name that doesn’t make it clear what the topic is about or what resources you want, please put more information on the request form.
    • Some topics cover many subject areas (history, science, art, etc). If you are only focusing on certain subjects within the topic, please let us know so that we do not send irrelevant books.
    • You can list specific titles, but you do not have to send ISBNs. If you request a title that we do not have we will either purchase it or send a suitable alternative.
    • If you request an item(s) that it is not possible for us to stock then we will let you know in a letter enclosed in your crate or by email.

    Did your miss you summer holiday collection?

    Returning all of your books and other resources on time means that everyone gets their autumn term orders on time!

    If you still have overdue items, have them ready for collection and let us know. Your new request may be put on hold if you have too many overdue books and artefacts.

    Find out more : Deliveries and Collections

    Request form for the Autumn Term

    If you require costumes for end-of-term plays, we would recommend you visit the library to choose the correct sized costumes. Telephone us to let us know when you wish to visit so that we can ensure staff are present in the library.

    IMPORTANT

    We strongly recommend ordering for BOTH halves of each term for the start of that term. In-demand books and artefacts may no longer be available if you wait until half-term.

    Resources will be delivered within 7 working days from the start of term, or from the date of receipt (if requested during the term time)

    Very Important!

    Are you requesting ‘Animals including humans’? If the answer is ‘yes’, please specify the topics that you’ll be covering and want materials on (e.g. senses, pets, bones and muscles, digestion, habitats, growth, etc).

    Are you requesting a title with different editions? If you’re planning around a particular version of a story (e.g. a story from mythology or an adaptation of a Shakespeare play) please let us know. Otherwise we’ll choose an edition suited to the year group.

    Have you already sent us a request form for this term?
    • Please indicate whether this request should replace the first form (your topics have changed) OR that this is for additional topics.
    • If we have already compiled and delivered your first request and you no longer require these items, we will need this to be returned to us before more resources can be sent.
    • If we have already compiled and delivered your first request and  and you require additional topics, we will send these provided there is space on your ticket. Alternatively we’ll put the second request on hold and contact you to discuss options.

    Van delivery is very expensive, so please request everything you need for both halves of the term to help us minimise journeys. This means we’ll have more money to buy new books!

    Please allow up to 7 working days for us to compile and deliver requests

      Your details



      Resources to pick up?


      You can borrow 70 items at a time. If you already have resources on loan, you’ll need us to pick up your old resources before we can send new ones.
      Please ensure items are packed and ready at the school collection point FROM TODAY.
      We’ll visit within 5 working days of receiving notice of collection. We will not be able to contact you with a specific time or day as our driver’s schedule is subject to change depending on demand.

      Your request

      If you’re requesting fiction book sets/ class sets, please clearly indicate which title you’d like as a set. Teachers may request one class set at a time, subject to availability.

      Resources are for the

      Feedback and comments


      We welcome your feedback.

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      *** Privacy notice Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services (including Global Learning London) enters into a service level agreement with schools to provide a range of resources and services to staff in those schools. We use information provided by those teachers to contact them about services, projects and events in order to fulfil the terms of the service level agreement.
      To request changes to any information provided, please email schoolslibraryservices@towerhamlets.gov.uk