Aquinas Grammar

This year has been very busy in the library with lots happening and some very exciting visitors. First  we welcomed Kev F. Sutherland  to present his fantastic Comic Book Masterclass which culminated in the production of our own Aquinas comic book “Destructor Queen of Dreams and Midnight”.

This was followed in October with some of our Year 9 and 10 Bookclub accepting an invitation from the librarian at Methodist College to attend an author talk she had organised there. Dan Freedman, award –winning writer of the Jamie Johnson football fiction series, delighted us with stories of how he became an author and with his memories of having worked as a journalist with premier league footballers like David Beckham, Wayne Rooney , Steven Gerrard and many others.

In November we entered the Northern Ireland Heat of The Kid’s Lit Quiz run by the librarian at Wellington College. It provided plenty of challenges for our book-loving  team  and we were delighted to achieve 2^nd place in the Heat. The very next day, thanks to Mrs Mc Poland of Easons  Bookshop, author Nicola Pierce came to Aquinas to tell our Year 8’s about her first book for children, “Spirit of the Titanic”.  She helped us understand how much research went into the writing of her book and tugged at our heartstrings with true stories, not only of passengers who perished , but of fifteen year -old Samuel Scott, a Belfast  boy, who fell to his death while working on the great ship.

The end of November  saw our half-price Scholastic Bookfair in the library at which  a staggering £1400 worth of books were purchased. Some great bargains were snapped up by teachers and pupils alike just in time for Christmas. Between it and the second – hand booksale, (thank you to everyone who donated books to sell) we were able to augment the library budget by a total of £397.

Add to this our four after – school bookclubs, our library classes, our new Preparing For University module for Year 14’s and our participation in the Book Trust initiative, Bookbuzz, for Year 8 pupils and you can see that our library has lots going on.

Roll on next year and an equally busy and exciting time in the library!