The Library

When can students use the library?

Students are welcome to use the Library at break and lunchtimes to study independently, read for pleasure, play board games, and participate in Library activities.  Students may also use the computers and priority is given to those who wish to complete homework.

The Library is also used by a number of departments to undertake research tasks, complete large projects and to fact-check their work using both the books, computers and iPads.

There are a range of activities and games available to students in the Library that vary each day and throughout the year. Our most popular lunchtime games are currently Chess, Uno and Exploding Kittens however, our collection covers everything from Scrabble and Cluedo to Monopoly and Dobble so there’s likely something that everyone will enjoy! The Library is a wonderful space for students to connect with friends during social times, complete homework, or revise.

Whenever possible the Librarian provides the opportunity to meet popular, current children’s authors. This year, we have been visited by local children’s author Mitch Johnson, who wrote ‘Kick’, one of our Year 7 form reads.

We have also been fortunate enough to be visited by award winning author Julian Sedgwick who provided a whole-year group talk for Year 8 and two break-away session focusing on world-building and ghost stories! We look forward to hosting more author events and book fairs in the future. The Library also runs half-termly trips to Norfolk Children’s Book Centre, a wonderful shop with over 50,000 books to choose from and artists signatures and illustrations all over the walls!

Library Lessons

All students in Years 7, 8 & 9 have a Library lesson every fortnight as part of their English lesson provision, which is devoted to personal reading and literacy-based activities. Our Library lessons are built around the Accelerated Reader programme which allows students to quiz on books they have read and take a termly STAR reading test which provides students with their personal reading age and ZPD score (this relates to the difficulty of book best suited for the student and links with the colour coding system in our Library). The STAR test helps us to identify students that may benefit from intervention as well as those that may be eligible for the More Able, Skilled and Talented (MAST) scheme run in school.

What is Accelerated Reader?

Accelerated Reader is a programme for monitoring and managing independent reading practice while promoting reading for pleasure. The idea is to engage students, motivate reading practice, and improve reading progress.

The student reads a book that is the appropriate reading level for them and then takes an online quiz about their book. This can be done in Library lessons, at break and lunchtime, or at home via the student school portal.