A gentle reminder for Y11’s that they need to return their library books by the end of this week – Friday 22 May.
Also in the newsletter this term; an update on our Student Librarians, a recap of what happened in the library on Earth Day (there’s footage on our YouTube channel if you missed it) and recommended books via the Carnegie Book Awards.
Enjoy!
A number of students and teachers participated in an Open Mic event in the library on Wednesday lunchtime last week, to mark Earth Day. The theme – Nature – provided those present with the opportunity to ponder the future of our planet, and reflect on what we can all do to help preserve it.
The students selected extracts from books, read poetry and even composed their own for the occasion. Their assurance in front of the microphone and their ability to convey the key messages from the pieces they read from, was first class.
Special thanks to our wonderful librarian for organising and MC’ing the event and to the students that gave up their lunchtime – including Ryan and Sammy on “Sound” – to help facilitate the occasion.
Earth Day – Wednesday 22 April if you didn’t know – will be celebrated in school next week in an Open Mic lunchtime event on the day itself.
Our theme is Nature – theirs is Our Power, Our Planet fyi – students are invited to register in advance at the library should they wish to read from a book or poem of their own choosing.
All participants will receive a credit.
The deadline to register is Monday 20 April. We hope to see you there!
From Monday morning through to Thursday of next week – 23rd to 26th March – students can visit The Book Fair in the library either before or after school, during break or lunchtime, where they can choose from over 200 titles.
For every penny spent at the fair, Scholastic awards credits to our school that can be spent by our librarian in their online book shop.
There will be over 200 books to choose from and students can use their phone, card or cash to pay for their books.
We hope you can support this important initiative. All the information is in the latest library newsletter.
World Book Day week concluded on Friday lunchtime last week with The Book Quiz. Curated by the student librarians – special shout out to Molly – the quiz challenged participating teams to guess the book from brief extracts, book covers from blurred images and book titles from antonyms.
Thanks to everyone that took part in this, and the other events last week, and congratulations to Bea, Emily and Annie the quiz winners!
The quiz provided a fitting end to an extremely busy week celebrating the joy of reading in the school.
Oathall students celebrated World Book Day, and the National Year of Reading, at lunchtime events all week in the library.
On World Book Day itself, a number of students volunteered to participate in an inspiring Open Mic session in front of a sizeable audience.
We heard from students about the books and authors they love, some read extracts, others shared poems they’d composed themselves.
We collected together a few excerpts of some of the students that took part in the compilation video below – which you can also watch on our recently launched YouTube channel.
World Book Day (WBD) – Thursday 5th March – will be celebrated at lunchtime events in the library all through next week.
Students are being encouraged to get involved in the Second Hand Book Swap. All they need to do is bring in a book from home and drop it off at the library. In return they’ll receive a ticket which they can exchange for a book from those donated. This forms part of the Helping Other People and the Planet initiative, in the same way as the Clothes Swap did earlier this term.
And that’s not all. On Monday lunchtime students will be invited to make origami bookmarks. Tuesday and Wednesday the library will host book debates which are expected to be keenly contested!
On WBD itself, we have the popular Open Mic event. Students are encouraged to sign up at the desk to book their spot to talk about, or read from one of their favourite books or series of books. They might decide to talk about their favourite author or explain why they love reading so much. It’s up to them! Each student that takes the spotlight will receive a credit for getting involved.
And finally on Friday lunchtime, the library will host the Book Quiz! This is always a popular event. Once again, students need to book a place for their team – groups no larger than 4 please – at the library desk.
Throughout the week students can collect a £1 book token from the library or their English teacher which they can exchange for one of the WBD books being promoted in participating bookshops nationwide – just head to the WBD website to see what books are available.
We look forward to a busy week celebrating reading.
Catch up here on all our latest library news including a list of 40 eagerly anticipated books that will be released in 2026 – The National Year of Reading.
The Library team are always looking for ways to inspire students to read more. This month they arranged a visit to the school by international best-selling author C J Daugherty
Christi Daugherty is the best-selling author of The Night School, a series of thrillers for young adults. Christi visited the school along with her husband Jack Jewers, an award-winning director. Together they have created the Night School web series, the first British web series based on a young adult book. Christi spoke to Y7 students about her path to becoming an author and about the importance of writing in everything that we do.
Students were enthralled by her real-life stories of working for the Home Office in counter-terrorism and asked her lots of questions about what inspired her to write, how she comes up with the ideas behind her stories – especially the end of the book and what she would have become if she had not become an author. At the end of her talk, she signed copies of her books for students.
After her visit, her husband Jack sent the school an email saying
CJ had a great time, as did I, and it was a pleasure to meet you and the kids. Please pass on to them that they really impressed us with their questions too.
