WHERE GIRLS LOVE READING

WAKEFIELD

Matilda Bronze Award Winners

WHERE GIRLS LOVE READING

News from the Learning Resources Centre 2020-21

by Rose Harries - LRC Manager

It has been an unusual year here in the LRC just as it has all over school. September began with some uncertainty about how things would work in here, a communal space filled with resources that were being handled by lots of people, the LRC represented a unique challenge in terms of keeping operating as much as was safe.

Mr Carlin kindly made me a very snazzy screen for my desk, soft furnishings were put aside and tables spread out. Following CILIP guidance, books have been cleaned and quarantined on return and students have been cleaning their hands before entering the library. We have needed to operate a rota in order to maintain year-group bubbles, but I think the students adapted to all of these new rules quickly and have understood the need for them.

Over the second lockdown which started in January, the LRC became the school base for key worker students and we all fell into a nice pattern of working here together, as well as some time for games, colouring and audiobooks. It was really nice to feel the school still operating face-to-face, albeit on a reduced level, whilst the outside world felt so uncertain and it was an opportunity to be appreciative of what a comfortable, relaxed and open space we are fortunate enough to have here in the form of the LRC.

Amelia Parkin, Matilda Gold Award Winner

Black history month Matilda Bronze Award Winners

n October marked Black History Month and I had a massive drive to promote

Black writers here in the library.

A Reading List was compiled and students were shown a selection of fiction to try. I also created a display outside the Headteacher’s office to mark BHM. I have made a renewed ongoing commitment to stock a diverse collection of books, especially fiction, that reflects our school community and our society.

n In November I did a Hepworth Lecture for Year 12 entitled ‘The woman in the attic’ which explored literary representations of women’s mental health against the context of the society in which they lived.

n December saw Mrs Besford from the

English Department launch our third annual Matilda Awards, a reading challenge spread out over three months. Students read as many books as they can from a challenging reading list and complete reflective tasks based on their reading. This year the theme for our reading list was books that reflect diverse cultures and traditions, both in terms of the stories they tell and the authors who wrote them. We wanted students to experience the power of books to transport you to different places and to show the lives of people whose experiences differ greatly from our own. Despite the limitations of the lockdown, a good number of students took part in the awards scheme, with

Bronze awards being issued to Alice

Simmons, Saachi Singh, Hareem

Ghouri, Edie Lewis, Rhea Lahiri, Rhiona

Lahiri, Sascha Manomano and Lilly

Pouliou. Silver awards were issued to

Tiffany Djagiyikpo and Hareem Ghouri and a Gold award was given to Amelia Parkin.

n In January I did a whole-school assembly for Holocaust Memorial Day where I spoke about four books by, and about, victims of Shoah.

n In March, for World Book Day, I did a whole-school assembly about literature at times of pandemic/crisis and we ran a competition to design face-masks for every year group from Mulberry House through to Senior School. We had some really great entries and our overall winner Hareem Ghouri, had hers made into a real mask. I also asked staff to submit a photo of their bookshelves for a staff ‘shelfie’ competition which the girls could join in via Kahoot.

n In May, two teams of Year 9 girls were entered by Mr Shaw into the Yorkshire heat of the National Reading

Champions Quiz, run by the Literacy

Trust. The quiz was online this year and took place in the WGHS Lecture

Theatre. Out of twenty eight teams in the Yorkshire heat, our teams came 3rd and 11th with only 3 points between the top three teams so they did absolutely amazingly!

n The students that took part shared their experience with us: “Twenty eight schools from all over Yorkshire took part via microsoft teams, and we sent our answers through email. The ten rounds ranged from solving puzzles and anagrams to answering questions about ancient mythology, and we definitely enjoyed some more than others! Our team, which was made up of four girls (Alice Morrison, Amelia

Parkin, Shriya Nagtode and Leina

Tordoff), placed 3rd, with 64 Points.

We were only 2 points away from the winning team, who went through to the next round. The other team (Robyn

Walters, Annabel Simpson, Tabitha

Higgins and Sophie Lister) came in at an impressive 11th! We all had great fun in the sweltering Lecture Theatre.

We highly recommend this fun event for readers of all abilities. You don’t need to have read lots of books, just know opening and closing sentences, be good at solving anagrams, and be able to interpret a book title from a video.”

n At the time of writing, we are celebrating Pride month in the LRC, as well as promoting LGBTQ+ authors, I have asked staff to nominate their Pride heroes.

n Further information about all of these events, including recommended reading, is available on the LRC and

English Department Firefly pages. Over the second lockdown we introduced an Ebook platform in order to provide a continuous source of free-reading for students who were at home. The highlight of my lockdown was an email from a Year 8 student who was homeworking:

‘I hope that this email finds you well. I was writing to email you to say thank you so much for the e-book library, it is definitely going to make a MASSIVE difference, especially for me (as I'm a bookworm) and I have read all of my books at home at least three times each. I can't wait to start browsing and reading!’

The importance of reading at times like this can’t be exaggerated. To comfort and nurture ourselves through choosing and reading books is a skill that students will carry with them throughout the ups and downs of life.

Reading Quiz

Tiffany Matilda Silver Award Winner

Hareem mask