In The Club

Those who have come through the primary school will be familiar with the way a book club works - students take home catalogues and place an order to buy any of the books in them that they like the look of.  These books are then delivered to the school and distributed to take home.  For many students at primary it´s one of the highlights of the year, and the benefits of choosing your own books to enjoy at home, away from the pressures of school and studying, cannot be overstated.

And now there´s the chance for secondary students to get involved!  By now all students in Years 6-10 should have received their catalogue from Baker Books International Book Club and taken it home.  There are some wonderful books in there and something to suit all ages from 10-16.  If you see a book you would like to add to your home collection all you need to do is talk very nicely to a parent (or whoever holds the purse strings in your household) and ask them to buy it for you.

Paying for the books really couldn´t be easier.  We have set up a brand new, state-of-the-art facility called Parent Pay, which means that parents simply need to go to this web address http://parentpay.bakerbooks.co.uk/clubs/SWASPA1 and pay with their debit or credit card.  It is completely secure and can all be done from the comfort of your own home.  How easy is that?

And why should you buy books this way instead of through other well known booksellers?  The benefits are two-fold.  Firstly because the books on offer in this catalogue have been hand-picked and specially selected by educators as being great reads and resources for students, and secondly because for every book our students order the library will receive credit to put towards books to add to our collection.  So it really is a win-win!

Deadline for orders is Friday 23^rd May, so that your brand new books will be delivered and distributed before the end of term.  Make sure you get your order in before then.

Finger on the Pulse

The first library-produced issue of Pulse came out last Friday and, as I´m sure you have now found out, it makes a fascinating read!  Many thanks and congratulations to all our contributors for their articles on subjects as diverse and interesting as the perils of rock n roll music, the benefits of reading, the importance of maintaining a healthy body image and what our favourite snack tells us about our personality, to name but a few.

Don´t miss the wonderful double page spread from Nikita in Y9, in which he shares photographs and tales from his encounters with the wildlife of the Caribbean, and our Inspirational Writers section which includes many of the winning entries from the various writing competitions in Spanish and English that have taken place this term.

New books and video games are given the once over by our team of reviewers and our technology section keeps you up to date on all the latest innovations on the market (and some that haven´t yet got that far).

Basically this issue is packed, cover to cover, with fantastic not-to-be-missed articles.  If you want to contribute something to the summer issue, due out in June, please send it along to the editor at library@swansschool.net or come along to an editorial meeting which takes place every Thursday lunchtime in the library, where we will also be seeking photographers, designers and illustrators.

Book Week Roundup

Despite it being a very busy week, with the Easter egg competition and sports day among other events taking place, the Swans students still found time to go loco for literature during our first Book Week (we´ve historically only had a day).

In the library we had daily quizzes to test our students book smarts, we also launched the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire challenge which dares students to read a million words in 2014.  There is still time to take up the challenge, and you can enter both as an individual and as a form group – there will be prizes for the first to reach the goal in each category. On Wednesday we had the Book Swap which was a great success thanks in no small part to the students who took part, going home to seek out suitable books to trade and coming to spend their tokens with great enthusiasm at our special stall.

We hope to do this again next year, and since there were so many students heard to say that they wished they had participated, we expect it to be even bigger and better next time around.

One of the most exciting projects here in the library was the Great Swans Novel, which challenged students to write a novel in just a week, by writing as a collective.  The huge enthusiasm of their students, as well as their impressive creativity, imagination and humour meant that the novel all but wrote itself, and, having had a sneak preview, the library can report that it is a roller-coaster of a read!  It covers just about every genre from romance to fantasy to crime to horror, and definitely verges on the surreal, but it certainly isn´t boring.  The library will now work on editing and publishing the masterpiece so stay tuned to this blog for news of its progress.

Outside of the library, the English department spent this week going even more bonkers for books than usual by holding readathons in lessons (complete with comfy cushions and snacks) and holding the annual book trailer competition.  The climax of this took place during our final Book Week assembly, during which we got to watch the best ones which were judged and marked so that a winner could be chosen.  Choosing a winner was a difficult job indeed, given the standard of all the trailers into which the students had put so much hard work.  They were really accomplished – acted with commitment, approached with creativity and originality, and slickly produced and edited to boot!  All the staff were delighted with the amount of time, effort and passion the students had put in, as well as the level of teamwork demonstrated in achieving the outcome.  It´s amazing what you can achieve when you feel really passionate about something.  Well done to all the key stage three students who took part.

The next event was the nail-biting finale of the annual Spelling Bee.    Students were tested with some incredibly hard words including one that managed to fell all of the remaining runners bar one, our winner, a student from Year 6!  She took home the fabulous prize of a kindle, and an enormous sense of pride.

So that was Book Week and the library would like to thank all the students, staff and teachers for their continuing enthusiasm for all things literary.  And so, until it returns next year (hopefully even bigger and better than ever) we bid a fond farewell to Book Week.  Except we don´t, not really, because as any of our users know... in the Swans School Library every week is a book week!