December Reading Round-Up!
In September, our Year 7 students were welcomed to their continued reading journey with recommendations for novels that had inspired our Year 11 students during their time in High Tunstall. It was a lovely idea from one of our prefects, and the titles ranged from “Wolf Brother” to “1984” and it made a great welcoming display!
September also saw some students awarded the iconic Blue Peter Badge for writing book reviews. Students were very excited to receive their badges, a keepsake for years to come.
For our Annual Open Evening, our Student Librarians showed parents and future students around the Independent Learning Hub (ILH), explaining reading interventions and interactive activities they had devised such as a quiz, guess the amount of books, and a graffiti reading wall so that we could understand what our future students like to read. Our Student Librarians were fantastic and a credit to the College.
In October, we started up a new Reading Club for students who like all things Manga! This is extremely well attended and ran by a Year 11 student who organises brilliant quizzes, discussions and Manga art where students draw and create characters – the talent we have is amazing!
Black History Month was celebrated in the ILH with a display “Celebrating Our Sisters” highlighting the contribution made by black women in history and many new titles to read. Banned Books Week had a book display, and the librarians created a competition to guess the reasons why certain books were banned in some areas with some very strange results. October was an extremely busy month for displays and making sure our book collections are current, relevant and inclusive, and we are very proud of our ‘Shelf Help’ section, both fiction and non-fiction, which focusses on the many issues that may affect our young people highlighted on World Mental Health Day.
November was equally as busy, with books displays for Armistice Day, Non-Fiction November, Anti Bullying Week, and Diwali with extra books bought on the recommendation of our students.
Over the term, the ILH has held several competitions linked to reading and writing: The Wild Words Poetry Competition (a poetry writing battle between the Year 8 classes), Ms Burton’s Tunny Times Poetry Competition, and a task to describe a dystopian or ghostly setting. We have even had the naughty Christmas Elf visiting classes with his “Name My Book” riddles.
The Student Librarians have been a great help this term, especially as some are new to the role, creating displays, facilitating the day to day running of the ILH, and attending extra-curricular activities and duties. The College Winter Fair was a highlight with the librarians creating a pre-loved book stall and thus raising funds to purchase more popular titles and helping the College’s chosen charities.
To encourage reading for pleasure, and to help all families have books at home, the College held another Scholastic half price book fair. This is very popular and gives rise to much discussion and excitement as our students recommend different books and many bought them as Christmas presents for loved ones and each other. We also purchased 100 books that our Year 8 students had chosen them selves from a brilliant Bookbuzz selection, all gift wrapped by our Year 10 Student Librarians ready to take home for Christmas.
