UK National Year of Reading in 2026

The School Library is excited to participate in the UK National Year of Reading in 2026. We cannot stress enough how important reading is for all of our students: as a way to relax, learn and empathise with others. In an age of overstimulation and quick hits provided by gaming and social media, reading is proven to be the calming antidote that helps students to relax. More importantly reading, more than any other socioeconomic factor,  has been proven to improve student’s school grades and employment outcomes. If as an adult,  you read,  then model this excellent habit of reading,  to your children too.

As the final bells of the Spring Term ring, school communities face a familiar challenge: the holiday reading slide. While the break is a much-needed period for rest, it is also a critical transition point for literacy gains. Take time to visit a public library where you can borrow books for free or visit a local bookshop over the Easter holidays. Get your children interested in audiobooks or ebooks either via our EPlatform app they can use on the student homepage or via Borrowbox from Herts Libraries.  Take advantage of the spate of literary adaptations of books to films or series as it is a great way to inspire young and older readers alike.

Our Bookflix poster lists just a few coming this year, with more to be announced soon. We loaned 2000 books since the start of January so let’s aim for even more, including titles nominated for various national book awards,  next term!

 New Year,  New Books

As usual we have had an incredibly busy term with near 200 new books added to stock, valued at nearly £2000 rrp. We are heading into awards season so we encourage students to try new titles that have been either longlisted or shortlisted for various children’s book awards. It is important that our stock remains current, diverse and appealing and we are promoting these new books on our library catalogue and new book displays in the library. Students are welcome to come and tell us in person about anything they have read and recommend for stock well! Year 7 Book club meets every Tuesday lunchtime in the Library and we will be discussing lots of the shortlisted books for the National Sparks Book Award next term. Sparks pick great diverse fiction books which students get to vote on who wins.

    

 

Lost or damaged books

A small plea to parents and students however. We have had unprecedented levels of books lost or damaged since September. Students are required to replace them but it takes a lot of time and money to keep ordering replacements, recovering and labelling them. Please make sure you have a waterproof bag inside your child’s backpack to keep our school books in pristine condition so that everyone can enjoy them. We sell book wallets in the library.
 

Ghost Story Competition Winners

Our competition this term was a new creating writing one along with the English Dept. Students were tasked to write a 500 word short ghost story.

1st Place went to Zara P 8TM

2nd place to Tara S 7SH

Viyana de Zoysa 9TM

Well done to all who entered. Ms Grimston and I had lots of creepy stories to read!

World Book Day 2026
 

The school celebrated World Book Day this year with an author visit from Bali Rai, an author who writes historical and real life stories featuring multicultural issues and characters. He led two lively assemblies and two creative writing workshops and did a book signing in the library. We held a quiz in form and staff dressing up on WBD itself and made sure to promote our favourite childhood reads to students. Having a discussion about your favourite children’s books as is a great way to introduce them to books they might then like to read as well. The Library handed book vouchers and purchased a WBD book to all Y7’s to take home for free.

Happy Easter Break to you all

Mrs Greatrex & Ms Goetsch

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