9.45

Ian Storey, principal of Stockley Academy, leads us through his £26 million cathedral of air and light built in 2005 extensively of glass and paved with glossy tiles. He points out that from the bridge over the atrium, a single teacher can watch the entire dining area and a wide tract of playground. If he turns his head to the right he can see, though internal windows, a good portion of the main corridor. If he pivots another 90 degrees, he can scan the reception and, through another glass wall, the front path and, beyond, the main road.

Stockley Academy is in the socially deprived London ward of West Drayton, 35 per cent of its students are on the special-educational-needs register and 42 11-year-olds who began last year had a reading age of less than 9. But Storey, compassionate and experienced, surveys his kingdom with the smile of a man who has found professional nirvana. And miracles do seem possible here: an attendance rate of 67 per cent is now 91 per cent.

The library - or the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) - lies at the heart of his vision for the school. He employed Karen Bhatti as LRC manager in September. In her previous school she began as lead bilingual teaching assistant and ended up managing and transforming the library into a bright hive of activity, which earned her a citation from the School Library Association. “She knew how to work with children from being a teaching assistant. Since coming here, she has involved the youngsters and staff, and you need that to run a successful library,” Storey says.

10.00

The library is a tall yellow room with a mezzanine floor reserved for the sixth form. When we enter, Bhatti is talking to Sharon Court, a sales rep from Heinemann, a publisher specialising in books for school libraries. Court is plugging an online encyclopaedia of which Bhatti has a good knowledge from her previous school.

A cyber-resource, vetted for accu-racy, suits 21st-century children, for whom the internet is the most natural recourse for information, but not necessarily the most reliable. But Bhatti, who was an accounts assistant in business before working with children, has a secondary reason for considering the online encyclopaedia,

“Subscribing to Heinemann would get us a percentage off their books. I think of the students first, and then I try to make the money go as far as it will,” she says.

10.55

Ms Court leaves as a bell signals morning break and several Year 7 students enter, including lively, spiky-haired Josh Rogers, 11, who often helps to put up posters and sort books. He is part of a network of volunteers who range in age from 11 to 18, who, along with Bhatti's assistant Kelly, are responsible for many day- to-day tasks in the library. Bhatti has even trained sixth-form helpers to scan in and issue books. This means that she is free to help students to find books (and teach them how to do so themselves), to arrange clubs, and even rearrange the furniture to better use the space. She keeps her helpers on board with an effective mixture of pragmatism and charm.

“It is important to delegate but also to have a good relationship, to make sure they're not doing the same thing all the time and make them feel equal. They must feel appreciated.”

As break continues the library fills up. Four Year 10 boys play chess. “We come every time we're allowed, every day,” one tells me. Pre-teens pull paperbacks from the colourful fiction shelves and appraise their covers. Low murmurs from the sixth form filter down. Notably, all but one pupil downstairs is male. It seems possible that Stockley is attaining the educational holy grail, making boys want to spend time with books.

Minutes before the bell rings, Josh takes out The Pocket Book of Footballers, packed with information on almost every player in a British team. As an Arsenal supporter he is particularly interested in Cesc Fabregas.

“I sometimes get two books out a week because sometimes I get bored at home,” he says. “My mum and dad got me an Xbox for Christmas and they say ‘why don't you play it?' and I say ‘nah, I'd rather read'.”

I check to see if he is having me on. He gazes back, deadly serious, then trots off with his book.

11.25

Bhatti holds a library induction for a group of Year 7 and Year 8 pupils, which involves darting around the room looking for a book that will answer a set question. In between exertions she gets across duller basics, such as how the Dewey Decimal System works.

The accompanying teacher, James Bown, second in charge of humanities, is keen to use the library to get children reading. “I mentor a Year 11 English group and it fascinates me how sometimes pupils focus on English in the classroom but outside they don't see it as important. I think reading is quite a nice link, to make it a bit more real,” he says. He believes that by making children feel confident about finding books in a library, the induction will make it far more likely that these children will seek them out.

1.15

During lunch break, 20 Year 10s pair up with 20 Year 7s to improve the reading of the younger children. Unexpectedly, the scheme has been shown to help the reading ability of the older, as well as younger, child.

2.05

Beverley Jervis, manager of the Schools Library Service (SLS), makes an informal visit. The SLS provides advice and practical support, for example hosting meetings for secondary school librarians to share problems and innovations - something teachers are able to do every day. It also loans stocks of books for a year at a time. She believes that offers such as Books for Schools can make a real difference to librarians.

“They have very tight budgets and so if anything is free they are on the ball,” she says. “A lot depends on the head teacher, financially and for moral support.”

3.15

The school day draws to a close. Storey tells me that he has given Bhatti a £6,000 budget this year, and is eager to spend more on new library projects. But given that academies have multimillion-pound budgets, 75 per cent of which is spent on staffing, £6,000 is, as Storey puts it, “a drop in the ocean, not even 1 per cent.”

On that model, spare a thought, and perhaps a token, for the library of a cash-strapped comprehensive.

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