Library newsletter

I hope your child has enjoyed their year at Oathall, whether it is their first year here or whether they have been here for a few years now.

Reading, and the library, are at the heart of our school. Reading is fundamental to learning and to life. We encourage and teach it in a myriad of ways alongside fostering reading as a pleasurable and relaxing activity that can also stimulate converstion and thought. I would encourage you to look at how the written word is presented in your home, perhaps through recipe books, through magazine, using subtitles as well as in books and keep reading alive over the school holidays.

In this newsletter, you will find plenty of book suggestions and ideas for how to engage your child with reading. Please read right to the end where you will find a link to a podcast aimed at adults to help you support young people with reading.

I wish you and your family a restful summer break, and please keep reading together.

Debra Perrin, Librarian.

Next week, we will celebrate students in years 7 & 8 who have read over a million words on the Accelerated Reader programme. It is a phenomenal achivement and we are so proud of those whose special skill is reading.

Well done to everyone who has taken a quiz this year. Every book and every word counts towards your own total and your class total.

There are the top three novels borrowed in the academic year 2025-26. Click on the book for a review.

Manga and Graphic novels continue to fly off the shelves and remain a fantastic way of story-telling.

Our year 7 readers have been reading the shortlisted books on the Spark! Book Awards list and were delighted when their favourite book won the natioanl award. This is what they read.

Our students voted and this book was their favourite, followed closely by Nettle and The Uninvited. I Dare You was loved by boys and girls alike in our club.

Our older students have been discussing what makes a good book. We have talked about characters, plot and elements of story-telling that, when combined make an aoutstanding book. We then looked at the shortlisted books for this year's Carnegie award

Please find attached details for another relaxed ‘Crafternoon’, which we are running at Haywards Heath Library on Thursday 30 July, for all young people aged 11-17 years. We’ll be offering a variety of activities including badge making Lego, origami, collage, making keyrings or friendship bracelets, and customising clothing.

The activity is free to attend, and materials will be provided. Spaces are limited so we recommend booking via Eventbrite (QR code on the poster), though we expect to have space for some drop-ins on the day.

We also accept donations from home. We are always looking for copies of the Lottie Brooks, Twilight, The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings series but please do not donate Diary of a Wimpy Kid or David Walliams books, we have plenty of those titles already in stock and lots of spares. If you are interested in donating to the library, here are some guidleines.

The books should be suitable for children aged 11-16, not older or younger.

They should be in good condition.

If we can't use them in the main library, that you consent to them being used around the school for other purposes.

Any questions, please email librarian@oathall.org

Congratulations to the new Waterstone's Children's Laureate, Patrice Lawrence. Born in Brighton but raised in Haywards Heath, we were thrilled when she visitied Oathall back in March 2020, two weeks before lockdown.