In October we held our first 2-sentence scary story competition. We asked students and staff to submit an original scary story of no more than 2 sentences. The library staff then selected 13 of the best stories and displayed them on Halloween for everyone to come and vote for their favourite.

Congratulations to Darcie in year 9 whose story (below) received the most votes and won a £5 book voucher.

This competition was hugely popular across all year groups so we will definitely be doing it again next Halloween!

It’s amazing how a few carefully selected words have the power to send chills up and down your spine!

ELF ON THE BOOKSHELF

The library team adapted the well known ‘Elf on the Shelf’ activity with a book theme this year, aptly re-named ‘Elf on the Bookshelf’. Every school night during December, the resident library elf read a book and left clues behind the following morning for students to try and guess what book he was reading. The library team had fun thinking up ideas and students really enjoyed visiting the library each day to try and guess the book. Every day the guesses were added into a hat and one student was randomly selected each day to win a chocolate treat. Here are some of the clues left behind, can you guess the books?

THE LIBRARY ADVENT CHALLENGE

Each school day from 1^st – 13^th December, a new challenge was revealed on our library advent challenge board. These challenges ranged from crosswords to anagrams for all to take part. House points were awarded for all entries.

SCHOLASTIC HALF PRICE BOOK SALE

The Scholastic half price book sale came back to the library this December. This book sale is very popular in the run up to Christmas as there are some great bargains to be had for potential Christmas presents. All books were at least half the retail price and sometimes even cheaper e.g. a brand new copy of Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief for £1.50!

CHRISTMAS CRAFTS

Throughout the year Miss Harris and Mrs Heard put aside old books that are falling apart and beyond repair with a plan to repurpose into crafts 😊

On 7^th and 8^th of December the library held some free workshops for anyone to come along and learn how to make these simple, but effective Christmas decorations using the old paperback books that they had collected.

Lots of students signed up and created some lovely items to take home.

January

NATIONAL STORYTELLING WEEK – a national celebration of the power of sharing stories. There will be virtual and in-person events that students can take part in.

February

Blind Date with a Book – A valentine themed activity where the library team wrap up a large selection of library books to conceal their identity so you can’t judge a book by its cover. Students then ‘rate their date’ by filling in the book mark review slip. This has been a great activity in the past, with some students falling in love with books that they wouldn’t have normally chosen had they seen the cover.

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