Aya Saoudy is a school librarian at Umm Al-Quwain school for Cycle 1 in the United Arab Emirates. She has 15 years of experience working in public and school libraries in Egypt and the UAE. She has a master's degree related to religious information seeking among Egyptian women and is pursuing a PhD in library and information science. Her goals are to develop school library services and activities to engage students and make the library a unique place for children. The library offers various activities for primary students, such as drawing, storytelling, and educational videos. It also has a special reading corner for students with learning difficulties.

1. School libraries - culture of making readers, leaders,
talented and creatives
Aya Saoudy, school library |Umm Al-Quwain school for cycle1-
The United Arab Emirates
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Aya Saoudy is a school librarian , Umm Al-Quwain
school for Cycle1 –The United Arab Emirates,
Originally from Egypt. She has worked in both
public and school libraries over the last 15 years.
Working directly with library users in different
settings led her to develop an interest in
information literacy instruction and developing
school libraries services and activities to attract
the students to it, PhD researcher in library and
information science.
Masters was about Behaviour of searching for
religious information among Egyptian women in
slums.
interested in the specialization of schools’
libraries and its system and develop itTo make it a
unique place for children.
She gave many online lectures aboutThe role of
children's libraries in achieving the goals of
sustainable development.
climate ambassador- initiative, one million youth
volunteers for climate adaption.
Aya Saoudy
The library considers as a green library because it
depends on natural lightening, so I made this area such
as a garden for the students, we put artificial green
grass instead of carpet to motivate them to read and
develop their imagination.We also put some games as
(chess, ladder and snake, and some Montessori games)
to develop the children's mental and educational skills.
then , it became the favourite area for students to read
and play together, and it also became a comfortable
place for them as well.
Umm Al-Quwain school for
cycle1
The library provides its services to 600 students in all
grades (grade 1 – grade 4), it contains about 4500 titles
in two languages ( Arabic – English).
Arabic books : 2500.
English books: 2000.
the library contains a big screen to show educational
videos for students.
The school system : Follett Destiny
Follett Destiny Discover provides one discovery
interface for students and educators to search and
access all print and digital resources, including eBooks,
audiobooks, and interactive books, as well as free and
paid subscription databases.
The library
students' activities
Umm Al-Quwain school’s library
It’s for cycle one (grade 1 – grade 4)
affiliated to Ajyal schools:
It is a new model for government schools - the first
cycle in the United Arab Emirates, It adds diverse and
advanced educational options to the national
educational system, It reflects the vision of the wise
leadership to develop the education sector in the
country. Al Ajyal Schools combines the approved
national curriculum in Arabic language, Islamic
education, and social studies with the American
curriculum in other cognitive fields such as
mathematics and science. The Emirates Foundation
for School Education began implementing the
Generations Schools model in ten public schools, the
first cycle, with the start of the academic year 2022-
2023. It is operated by three experienced educational
institutions from the private sector, which are
“Taaleem”, “Bloom” and “Al-Dar Education”, under
the supervision and follow-up of the institution.
The Garden
Aya Saoudy
Umm Al-Quwain school for cycle 1 – United Arab Emirates
Email: aya.saoudy@ese.gov.ae
Library activities
The library offers many different activities
for primary school students, such as
drawing and colouring, making abstracts for
the stories that have been read, writing
story events and drawing some of them,
and watching educational videos. It also
offers workshops to teach children how to
recycle wastes to preserve the environment.
The school includes many children who have
learning difficulties, so we have allocated a
special place for them to read. During the
library session, the specialized teacher takes
these students to their reading corner, reads
simple stories to them, and teaches them how
to read through their own teaching methods.
Reading corner