This month we have become a very popular place to visit due to our heat pumps and range of activities like board games, card games, guitars, keyboard and books (especially the graphic novels).

Our senior team of Student Librarians are leading by example and many have been with us for four years. William Hince, Ethan Shingleton, Ali Alaswad, Robert Roos, Charlie Philps and Kester Lucas are serving out their final few months with us. Ethan Shingleton has now covered 200 books for the library and we congratulate him!

Boys read at school! They have to during Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) but many of them read anyway. So far this year we have issued 7,927 books, a few to staff but most of them to boys. This is when books are competing for leisure time with sports, outdoor activities, online gaming, computer gaming and streamed movies/series.

For those of you who are concerned that the boys mentioned above don’t sound like your son(s) then try the following strategies – as research tells us that the more reading done, the better he will perform at school and in life:

Expect them to be readers – don’t accept the idea that boys aren’t naturally good at language.

Provide reading role models, especially fathers/male carers.

Have a variety of reading material available e.g. all-action thrillers, graphic novels, anecdotes, corny, juvenile funnies and those stories with well-developed characters.

Mention a book which you’ve just read and leave them hanging about the ending – curiosity will take over.

Over-hearing boys discussing books is a great part of my work! Another is buying them the books they ask for!

Our Year 9s will be rewarded for reading books this year in the Rector’s Reading Challenge, where they receive certificates from the Rector at the whole school Assembly plus a morning tea shout with him. Students need to read 15 books for the Bronze Certificate, 30 books for the Silver and 60 for the Gold. They can sign in with the Library staff or their English teacher when they finish books.

Mrs Langley