Summer 2015 Edition 5
BookWorm DESIGN A BOOKMARK COMPETITION
The Library is thrilled to announce that we now have an e-lending service, RM Books. Pupils can upload a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books whilst in school and read at their leisure on any internet enabled device at home, at school or whilst out and about. The system is accessed via RM Unify using pupils’ individual school log in details (staff can access too in the same way). Once on the RM Books site, select ‘School Library’ and have a look at the amazing range of books on offer and take your pick. Your chosen book will then appear in ‘My Books’ for a loan period of three weeks. Do speak to Mrs Needham or Mrs Ryan in the Library if you need any help with this exciting new resource.
We had a large number of high-quality entries for our Design a Bookmark competition this year which made choosing our winners an incredibly difficult task! The competition was open to pupils from the Shells, Second and Third Years who wowed us once again with their obvious love of reading, their thoughtful choice of book quotes, their words of book-related wisdom and their artistic skills. The winners were as follows: Shells: Giselle Pinto 2nd Years: Caragh Shaw and Fiona Chung (too hard to choose between them!) 3rd Years: Ashleigh Stonier. And the runners up: Shells: Toby Harkin and Lauren Gillan (both amazing) 2nd Years: Rhea Upadhyay Third Year: Emma Blackett. All our worthy winners were presented with a beautiful certificate, designed by the equally creative Mrs Mair in Reprographics, which featured their winning bookmark and a Waterstones gift voucher. All the winning bookmark entries are being printed up by Mrs Mair and will be available to all pupils to pick up from the Library reception desk. It will be incredibly rewarding for these gifted pupils to see their designs in print and being used by their peers!
BOOK FAIR The Library hosted a Scholastic Book Fair in November to coincide with Reading Week. This is an annual event and this year’s fair was extremely well supported.
BOOK CLUB NEWS
In our previous newsletter we mentioned that our Kindles were being set up. The exciting news is that they are now up and running and are being borrowed by both our Library Book Clubs to read our chosen books. Junior Book Club (Shells and 2nd Years) is being run by four Lower 6th pupils: Ellie Griffin, Ruth Jones, Hannah Davies and Sam Samson and meets fortnightly on a Wednesday lunchtime in the Library. Junior Book Club’s favourite read of last term was Maze Runner by James Dashner: a dystopian page turner. Senior Book Club (3rd Years to Sixth Form) meets monthly on a Thursday lunchtime in ICT 4 and is run by Mrs Ryan. Our favourite book last term was Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas: a much enjoyed action fantasy and the second book in the highly popular Throne of Glass series. If you’re interested in joining either Club, see Mrs Needham or Mrs Ryan in the Library or just turn up to one of our sessions! Book choices and dates are also posted on the Library website (www.bablakeschoollibrary. co.uk), the Book Club noticeboard in the Library and in the Daily Bulletin.
OPENING HOURS Monday to Friday: 8:15to 5:00pm www.bablakeschoollibrary.co.uk
AUTHOR VISITS In July 2014 Ali Sparkes treated the Shells to a rip-roaring ride through her journey from school girl to award-winning author. Sporting a pair of black sparkly boots, Ali used her time-travelwhirly-gadget to transport us back in time. There we met her younger self who was inspired to read and write having discovered Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. Ali involved the enthralled Shells in much of her talk and quizzed them about their ‘light-bulb’ book discoveries that triggered their love of reading. She held up response boards at intervals when she needed ‘applause’, ‘gasps’ and other exclamations. During the Q&A session Ali was asked if she had ever written pantomime, perhaps inspired by her sparkly boots and the response boards - she has, for Radio 4 if you were wondering! Finally Ali returned us to 2014 and signed posters and books for a long queue of inspired and entertained Shells.
QUIZZES AND COMPETITIONS We’ve had lots of quizzes and competitions this year on book related themes which have proved popular with pupils. We are waiting with baited breath to see if any of our Shells will be successful with their Design a Comic Strip Competition run by Renaissance Learning – more on that next time!
We were also delighted to welcome Alex Scarrow, author of the very popular Time Riders series to school during Reading Week. Alex had been a video games designer prior to launching his career as a writer and he brought much of that animative style to the stage during his talk to Shells and 2nd Years! He introduced the first in the Time Riders series to the audience and we were all enthralled with the imaginative storyline. This was evident by the queue of pupils wanting to buy signed copies of his books afterwards.
“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” J K Rowling
CONTACT DETAILS Head Librarian; Mrs J Needham Assistant Librarian; Mrs L Ryan Tel: 024 7627 1247