Library

HARRY POTTER BOOK NIGHT 2021

ALL WORDS BY Amy Lumley-Wood, Prep School Librarian

On Thursday 24th June we were able to celebrate Harry Potter Book Night, later in the year than usual, and a much anticipated annual event for Potter fans around the world. The theme for this year was ‘Diagon Alley’. Lots of lessons were magic themed with Potions replacing science and boys headed outside in their Art lesson to build their own ‘Hagrid’s Hut’. At lunchtime there were very yummy Wizard’s hat muffins on offer in the dining halls. Our year 4 boys headed into Nash’s library after lunch to try their hand at making a golden snitch, a monster bookmark, or a wizard’s lantern. Year 3 boys had their chance after school to make a lantern or their own wizard’s money bag. Mrs Carrington finished the evening by reading aloud from ‘Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone’. The boys heard about Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley. Our colouring competition this year was a very detailed picture of Diagon Alley. There were some beautiful entries and judging was not easy. However, the winners were 1st Joseph Ram, 2nd Guy Jones, 3rd Joshua Featherstone.

Library

WORLD BOOK DAY

Prep School boys brought their favourite books to life on Thursday 5th March for World Book Day. Brilliant ideas were transformed into fabulous costumes making it seem as though the characters had just wandered out from the pages of their books and joined our classes for a day of everything reading-related.

The day was a wonderful celebration of books and reading, with each tutor group competing together to win the costume prize. This year, the honours went to READING

It has been reported in the press that book sales are up and reading has increased over the last 18 months as people have been spending more time at home, and more time on their own.

Reading has certainly been more popular in the Prep School and our Accelerated Reader scheme has encouraged boys to read and take quizzes on the books they have read as we offer a number of rewards for boys who achieve their reading targets and certain milestones.

This academic year boys have been able to take reading quizzes at home and through all the school holidays and they have logged almost 290 million words read, which is about 9000 books, and a 13% increase on the 2018/19 academic year.

An impressive 104 boys have become reading Millionaires this year and have been awarded a badge in recognition. If boys read more they get a different coloured badge for each successive million words.

This year, for the first time since we introduced Accelerated Reader, one boy has read more than 10 million words over the year.

We also reward those boys who pass more than 100 reading quizzes over the year. There were 8 members of the 100 Book Club this year.

Reading is very important in the Prep School and all our boys taking a reading quiz are contributing points to the House Cup, and there is a Reading Trophy for the House whose members pass the most quizzes.

All boys are set a termly target for reading and they get a merit each time they meet their target. Boys in years 3 and 4 have class competitions as well with special treats for the winning class.

MILLIONAIRES

There were 104 millionaires in total this year, and of these:

n 16 boys have read more than 2 million words n 9 boys have read more than 3 million

n Oscar McCartie and Berkley Barnicoat have read more than 4 million

n Lewis Noble has read more than 5 million

n Thomas Noble has read more than 8 million

n Oliver Barbour has read more than 10 million

THE MOST REQUESTED

BOOK IN THE LIBRARY IS: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’

100 BOOK CLUB

The following boys have passed more than 100 quizzes:

Thomas McDonald Rory McDonald Guy Jones Oliver Barbour Hugo O’Boyle Aaniketh Gusswami Gabriel Roberts Prayagh Sunil

THE HOUSE TOTALS

Bunyan 1921 Harpur 2082 Howard 1966 Whitbread 2813

WINNERS

So Whitbread are the winners of the reading trophy. Well done!

SO WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN READING?

The library has a wide range of books by different authors, and in different genres. Boys in the prep school have wide ranging tastes, from Sophie Anderson to Ross Welford, and from Dystopian to Science Fiction. As you might have guessed our most popular authors with the younger boys are David Walliams, Jeff Kinney, Liz Pichon and J K Rowling. The older boys all want to read James Dashner, Suzanne Collins and Robert Muchamore.

THE MOST POPULAR GENRE? Humour of course!