| Yes | What fantastic readers we have at St Augustine's! 107 students have read 20+ books this year and were eligible to come to the Library's end of year party. Eleanor Little and Thomas Milnes were top readers with 140 and 179 books read. Chloe Tucker, Peter Greenstreet and Edward Farrell have all borrowed more than 100 books each; Niamh Smith, Jack Colyer, Luke Duncan, Antonietta Amendolara, Emily Nelson, Allan Clifton, Thomas Fitzgerald, Emily Symes, Megan Ward, Josephine Evans, Isaac Rhodes, Jessica Stoddart, Lucie Trimnell, Niamh Rooney, Josephine Ball, James Bools, Aimee Cooke, Callum Edwards, Lily Griggs, Sarah Clifton and Lee Rosser all belong to the 50+ club. Well done to all of these students. We had a wonderful time. | 30/09/2011 |
| Yes | 12 year 9 students took part in the Cilip Carnegie Book Award shadowing scheme this year. The target for each of the pupils was to read at least 3 books in the time slot we had, discuss the books using the same criteria as the judges and vote for our favourite. Josh Simmons, Emma Louca, and Matthew Pearce read all six which was no mean feat in the time frame we had. Caitlin Tinnion, Issy Emmitt and Adam Jarvis both read 5 and Amy Stockwell, Bridie Fry, Olivia Woodington, Layla Powell, Sophie Hessler and Jack Thomas were the other students who completed the challenge. Well done to them all. The students have recommended their favourite reads which are now on a bookmark and will be given to all the year 6s who visit this term and they also accompanied Mrs Hawke and Mr Powell on a book shopping trip to purchase books for the Library. Work is not quite complete as all the students will prepare a notice board for Mrs Lever's classroom on the award later in the term.
As for the winner: Monsters of Men (the third in the Chaos Walking Trilogy) by Patrick Ness was the winner. Our group's favourite was The Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin. I finished it at the weekend and now see why it is such a favourite with all the students. | 24/07/2011 |
| Yes | Tomorrow night, Thursday 7 July 2011 will see St Augustine's first Poetry Festival. Doors open at 6.00pm. There will be a book stall available from Ex Libris books in Bradford on Avon for all your literature needs. Refreshments, raffle and music will add to the enjoyment of the night. | 10/07/2011 |
| Yes | St Augustine's Summer Reading Challenge starts now. Years 7,8 and 9 are challenged to read 5 books over the summer holiday. Keep a record of the books read, reward a 'medal' , add a short comment and return a completed record to the Library by 16 September. Each student who completes the challenge will receive a certificate and be entered into a prize draw. One of the prizes are signed copies of Sophie McKenzie's 'The Set-Up' series.
Remember: "If a child can read they can think, and if a child can think, they are free", Siobhan Dowd | 16/09/2011 |
| Yes | Chloe, Isobel, Lydia, Catherine, Tia, Niamh, Lydia and Jessica from year 7 shadowed the Red House Book Awards this year (Chloe managed to read all six!).
Our group's favourite book was Shadow by Michael Morpurgo and it won the Overall Award. It is his third time winning this award, more than any other author.
Other highly rated books were Time Riders by Alex Scarrow (which won best award for older readers) and Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan.
Well done to the group for all the reading they have done this year. | 30/06/2011 |
| Yes | The Day: the new on-line daily news service for schools. Available at: www.theday.co.uk Our user name and password are
Username: StAugustinesPassword: theday Your subscription includes full member benefits: • Access to our website www.theday.co.uk • Three daily stories, accessed via an e-mail we send you each afternoon taking you to The Day website where the pdfs can be downloaded • Q & As and talking points for each story, and links for further reading • Longer online version of stories ideal for use on classroom whiteboards • The archive of stories, sorted by curriculum subjects and key words • A very popular weekly quiz | 30/06/2011 |
| Yes | Read Ahead, our book group which meets once a fortnight are currently shadowing the Red House Book Awards. Votes have to be in by Saturday. One of the nominated books was written by Sophie McKenzie who visited school recently. The topics covered in the nominated titles differ widely: hamsters, time-travel, the Blitz, war in Afghanistan, ancient Egypt and slum children in the Philipines! We are finding it hard to choose our favourite. | 31/05/2011 |
| Yes | We now subscribe to World Book Online. When you are in College you have a direct link from a desktop icon. To access World Book Online from home, go to the College home page, scroll down to the Library section on the right hand side, click on the link to World Book and you will be asked for password details. Username: augustines1 Password: worldbk Once you are logged in you will have access to reliable, up to date information at all times. You also will have access to a French and Spanish encyclopedia that is perfect for KS3 and KS4 pupils and you can translate any article 24 different languages. | 31/07/2011 |
| Yes | Sophie McKenzie Poster Competition
Well done to the following winners: Winner:Lydia Turner (7M) Runner Up: Emma Austin (7M) Special Commendation: Wojciech Porada (7M), Sulzeer Burke (9B), Phoebe Hughes (8C) Posters to be sent to Sophie: Nicola Holliday (7B), Rebecca Addeley (7M), Catherine Hindess (7M), Isobel Kammeyer (7M), Poppy Welsh (7M) | 28/04/2011 |
| Yes | Sophie McKenzie Poster Competition What a visit from Sophie is like Finished posters will be like an advert for a Sophie McKenzie visit – what she is like and what students can learn from a visit from her. You must include some information about: Sophie herself Her books Tips for being a good writer Make it bright, colourful and easy to read Visit: http://www.sophiemckenziebooks.com/ for information on Sophie Closing Date: 7th April 2011 Prizes: Signed copies of Blood Ties and Blood Ransom and a box of chocolates We will send the top 5 entries to Sophie and she might display them on her website! | 07/04/2011 |
| Yes | Sophie McKenzie’s book for younger readers (Years 4-6) has been nominated for the Red House Children’s Book Awards this year. Time Train to the Blitz is about two friends who jump on a train after their runaway dog and find themselves in the middle of wartime London.
We wish her good luck with this award! | 28/04/2011 |
| Yes | Sophie McKenzie said she had a really wonderful visit to St Augustine’s. She wanted to thank everybody for how welcome she was made to feel. She said all the students were very well behaved in her talks and was delighted by how engaged you all were. She also said that she was very impressed with the quality of the questions that were asked. | 08/04/2011 |
| Yes | On Wednesday 2nd March In the Library At 1.40-2.05
Who Year 7 Teams of 4 or less Teams must register in advance with Mrs. Hawke or Mrs. Edwards Teams must be registered by Wed 10.45 Team spaces are limited Numbers in the library will be limited on this day and you may not gain entry to print homework etc. You have been warned. Be prepared. | 02/03/2011 |
| Yes | This is a national competition organised for World Book Day. Go to:http://www.worldbookday.com for more information. Below is some information from the website.
Write a review to win a Toshiba Folio 100! There are thirteen great books to review. Choose one you know or one to read and write a review as a Word document of between 200 and 300 words and send it to us by Sunday 27th March. You can tell us honestly what you think about the book, your review needn’t be glowing, but please ensure you use appropriate language. By submitting your entry you agree to us potentially publishing it in part or in its entirety on the site. The review must be your own thoughts, your own words and all your own work. | 27/03/2011 |
| Yes | The Library will now stay open until 5.00pm from Monday to Thursday every week. | 28/02/2011 |
| Yes | I am thrilled to be able to say that popular author Sophie McKenzie will visit St Augustine's on 25 March. She will speak to Year 7, 8 and 9. | 25/03/2011 |
| Yes | Joffre White visited College on Mon 13th Dec to talk about his new book, Frog and to enthuse students about the joy of reading and the satisfaction of writing. Joffre is a local author born in Bradford on Avon and now living in Frome. He asked the students to share their reasons for reading or the reasons they do not read. He encouraged students to write independently, citing the example of keeping a diary as proof that though you may not be published - you can still call yourself a writer. Imagination is another tool in the armoury of writing and not to be dismissed lightly. Imagination brings us fantastic characters in books (Joffre used the example of Harry Potter) as well as fabulous games for modern-day technology. Resourcefulness and resilience are needed by writers in abundance. It took four years for Joffre to get his book published but he said the sense of achievement in following his goal to completion made all the hard work worth it. Frog is the story of a boy called Chris who discovers a knight from another dimension trapped in our world by a spell cast by a wicked witch. Chris travels to the knight’s medieval dimension and becomes involved in the struggle to defeat the wicked witch. According to the book jacket: Frog is a glorious, fast-paced thriller peopled with exotic characters and laced with wit, humour and a keen understanding of what it is that truly makes us who we are. | 14/01/2011 |
| Yes | Complete our short survey to tell us what you think of the Library, it is important to us to know what you think and how we could improve. It should only take a couple of minutes and we would be grateful for your feedback. Follow the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5M7P5HK | 17/12/2010 |
| Yes | Home for Christmas by Catherine Gurr (7F) The favourite time. Faces I know so well Absorbed in conversation Christmas lights glowing in the window A wave of laughter and excitement. Presents waiting expectantly Under a tinsel-covered tree. Then comes January. The house is an eerie emptiness. The tree is still standing in the corner. Lonely and now unwanted Like an uninvited guest A reminder that the time is over. But there’s a sadness At the thought of taking it down. Ahead, the impossible wait The longing for the sound Of familiar footsteps in the hallway. The hatchlings have flown the nest. Home Haven by Imogen Browne (7M) Some twenty years have passed I now return, but what to find? My memories hold strong, I fear reality will shatter them. The latch upon the gate is stiff. The paint it flakes, the hinges creak. The path is somewhat overgrown, previous order gives way to disarray. The door is open, Mother waits still. The smell! Cinnamon, nutmeg and a hint of comforting dough. Flames dance in the fireplace near the lopsided shelf. Heavy blue curtains hang with their mysterious prints. Familiar faces peer from pictures above. I sit in my chair with my mother’s home bakes. I close my eyes in contentment and sink into childhood heaven. My Home Poem by Sarah Whipp (7B) Hear the miserable cries of the tortured See the mist of their last precious breath Feel their bony hand scrape down your spine (aaaaaahhhh) Taste their fearful sweat as they learn their fate Smell the dank mouldy bedrooms where they were so cruelly murdered. This is my home, my home in a haunted castle Where I was so brutally put to death. | 06/12/2010 |
| Yes | We are proud to have several books in stock that are written by authors with a close connection with St Augustine's. Dr Gurr, our new head of Chemistry has co-written a textbook for A level students. The second is a history book: "By Sword and Fire: cruelty and atrocity in medieval warfare" written by Sean McGlynn, one of our parents. This book was described by the Daily Telegraph as "vividly and wittily related, full of detail." The last is a novel for young people: "Get Real" by Mimi Thebo who is married to Mr Wadsworth, RE teacher. "Get Real" is a novel about a boy discovering the really important things in life - and teaching everyone around him as he learns. All of these books are available to borrow from the Library. | 30/11/2010 |
| Yes | The Economist magazine is now available in the Library. It is a weekly current affairs magazine and should be read by anyone studying Business Studies or by anyone with an interest in world finance.
Be first with the news: If you are a regular reader you will soon recognize stories reported originally in The Economist are picked up by daily newspapers. | 19/11/2010 |
| Yes | Our book group will concentrate this term on the Booked Up books that should be arriving near Christmas. We will do lots of activities based on the books, games as well as reviews. Come to the meeting room Thurs of Week B at 1.55 (opposite the Library). | 19/11/2010 |
| Yes | The date for handing in the entries to the poetry competition has been extended to Friday 5th Nov. Don't forget to contact Mr. Portlock about booking a time for recording for St Augustine's Radio. | 06/11/2010 |
| Yes | The theme for this year's poetry competition is "Home". Entries are due on Thursday 22 October. Winners will be awarded in three categories:Years 7, 8, 9; Years 10, 11;Sixth Form. This year Mr Portlock will record and broadcast as a podcast, students' poems on our radio station!! He will be available break and lunchtimes to help you record but please let him know in person or by email before you go to his office. Record in a variety of styles: create your own music, use backing music already available, one voice only, several voices (use poem as a narrative for a play)..... Any way that makes your poem stand out from the crowd!
Not sure what to do?: Miss Cooper (who is a performance poet) will be in En3 every lunchtime at 2.05 to help you prepare for the recording.
Prizes will be awarded for the text of the poem and one prize given for the best performance. | 22/10/2010 |
| Yes | St Augustine's 2010 Reading Challenge for yr 8 and 9 officially ended this week when certificates were handed out to all students who completed the challenge in assemblies. Certificates were presented by Mrs Hawke and Mr Powell. Well done to all students who read 5 books in the allotted time frame. Congratulations to Paul Brown, James Bools, Niamh Rooney, Rebecca Downey and Callum Edwards who were winners in the prize draw. | 30/09/2010 |
| Yes | Winners of the World Cup Prediction game were Michael Lewis (yr 11) and Callum Worthington (yr 7). Callum wins a table top football game and Michael an electronic organiser. Elliot Wheeler and Gregorz Wisniewski, Conor O' Rourke, Ruby King and Dan Ralph and Rhys Jones deserve honourable mention for being runners up.
Mr Alsop won the staff competition and a very large chocolate bar will be winging its way to him shortly! Mrs Dixon, Mr Harrold and Mr Wright were runners up.
Anybody who would like to collect their entry form can call in and collect it from the Library. Correct answers are available to view at the Issue Desk. | 16/07/2010 |
| Yes | This year a group of 20 students from Mrs. Lever and Mr. Powell’s year 9 classes took part in shadowing the prestigious Cilip Carnegie Medal competition. The medal is given to the writer of an outstanding book for young people. This year’s group read books from the shortlist, discussed the books using the criteria to be used by the judges of the competition, wrote reviews of one of the books they had read and finally had a mini party on the day the winner was announced. The group favourites were Nation by Terry Pratchett and the overall winner The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Twelve of the students went on to take part in Trowbridge Town Library "Approval Collection" book buy exercise for teenagers. The books recommended by our students will be purchased for the library and will be available shortly at: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/libraries.
| 10/07/2010 |
| Yes | The college has subscribed to an online version of Encyclopaedia Britannica. This means that reliable, trustworthy information is now available at the click of a button from home or school.
Access is available with a Merlin login and the link can be found in the Library homepage or by using the term 'encyclopaedia' in the online catalogue Searchstar. Features of the online version include information graded for A level, secondary and primary students, biographies, maps, integrated dictionary, an online workspace in which to save information, links to related websites, online journals and citation information for bibliographies. | 08/05/2010 |
| Yes | Mrs Edwards and Mrs Hawke were busy reorganising several sections of the Library yesterday (Mon 19 April). Poetry has now moved next to the general English reference books and dictionaries; York notes on literature are also here. Shakespeare works, notes and biographical information have heaved a sigh and spread out to occupy their own section. Media has moved to where poetry was and music now has 6 shelves all for itself! Hoping that you will find the changes are an improvement and of course if you need any help just ask us | 30/04/2010 |
| No | Sonia Leong, an internationally renowned manga artist visited St Augustine’s Catholic College on Friday 19th March. Sonia has more than seventy publications to her credit and was recently invited to Athens at the Children's Literature Festival as a guest of the British Council. Sonia spoke to students about manga as a genre and about her work. She enthralled students with a talk on manga and followed that with three workshops on various aspects of her art: on the translation of words into images and the power of images; on how to draw manga, layout a storyboard and how to use typeface to add impact to the story and lastly, on her award winning translation of Romeo and Juliet into the genre. Manga is a Japanese word that means "comics" or "cartoons". There are examples of manga drawings in Japan dating from 800 years ago. The style has become very popular in the west in the last ten years and sales of manga books have increased enormously. Librarian Mrs. Hawke said that, “Students of all abilities enjoy reading manga novels and the novels are often a way to encourage disenchanted readers to start reading again. Our students enjoyed the day very much and we hope it will inspire them to read more and to produce their own stories and artwork.” | 01/04/2010 |
| Yes | Sonia Leong, international manga artist will be visiting St Augustine's on Friday 19th March. Sonia will be giving a talk to year 9s during lesson one and will do 3 workshops on different aspects of manga with smaller groups of pupils. Sonia illustrates and writes original manga stories and also adapts stories to manga format. The best known of these is her adaptation of Romeo and Juliet into manga. | 20/03/2010 |
| Yes | Dan Freedman's visit was very interesting and informative. He emailed Mrs. Hawke after his visit to say: "It's a lovely school and you and Mrs. Edwards are doing really great work in the library. I found the students to be full of respect and very keen to learn." He came to St Augustine's to talk about his life and the Jamie Johnson series of books. The books follow Jamie through the dramas of his life, the excitement of his football matches and growing success as a player.
Dan spoke to Year 7, signed books after the talk and then had a snack with the winners of the Premier League Reading Challenge and four Year 8 students who are involved in another reading challenge at present.
Dan worked for the FA and travelled to two World Cups with the England football team. Dan wanted to be a footballer when he was young but when it became apparent that his talent was not good enough to allow him to turn professional he set himself the goal of becoming a sports journalist. Dan spoke about how he reached his goal, got a job with the FA, travelled to two World Cups with the England Football team. He showed some footage of interviews he has done with England's top footballers. This was a fascinating behind the scenes look at the players.
Then he spoke about writing the Jamie Johnson books. It took three years for the first book to be published but his fourth will be published in July and he was selected to write a special short book to celebrate World Book Day. He left us with the idea that if you have a goal, are determined and work hard you can achieve your dreams.
| 19/03/2010 |
| Yes | The great reading challenge is over! Unfortunately we failed to reach 100 but we managed to read 77 in a short period of time. Well done to everyone who took part. We are signed up to do the next challenge which begins in March! We can definitely read 100 between now and next March.... come on all you readers! | 03/03/2010 |
| Yes | Come to the Library and vote on which books you would like us to choose. Any break or lunchtime until Friday. We can choose 15 books from a very long list. Have your say!
The list is attached so you can have a look at your leisure and choose from the comfort of your own computer screen or you can come to the issue desk and see our paper copy. | 19/12/2009 |
| No | Year 7 will receive their free books this week and next. Mrs. Hawke and Mrs. Edwards have been busy sorting the books into teaching groups ready for delivery. Each student will also receive a letter for parents explaining about the scheme, a sticker and a bookmark with more reading recommendations. The best review of a book from the 2009 list will win a boxed set of books.
The scheme is organised by independent charity Booktrust, which was set up to encourage reading to all ages and cultures. Booked Up’s goal is to encourage and support reading for pleasure by providing each Year 7 pupil in England with a free book from a list of 12 specially selected titles. Earlier in the term pupils were brought to the Library by their English teachers where they were introduced to the books by Librarian Mrs. Hawke. They then made their choice and have been waiting patiently for the books' arrival. The wait is now over... | 23/11/2009 |
| No | The winners of the poetry competition will be announced on Thurs, National Poetry Day 2009. Mr. Powell and Mrs. Hawke looked at all the poems on Fri and sent the shortlist to Philip Casey the poet who will decide on the winners. | 09/10/2009 |
| No | Our competition will be judged this year by well known Irish poet Philip Casey. Philip Casey was born to Irish parents in London in 1950 and grew up in Co Wexford. Philip has published four collections of poetry, including Dialogue in Fading Light (New Island Books, 2005), and three novels, The Fabulists (Lilliput 1994), The Water Star (Picador, 1991) and The Fisher Child (Picador, 2001). He is currently writing The Book of Rights – The Story of Irish Slavery and Servitude. He has been a recipient of an Arts Council/An Chomairle Éalaíon Bursary for Literature, and was awarded the inaugural Kerry Ingredients/ Listowel Writers’ Week Novel of the Year Award (1995) for The Fabulists. He is a member of Aosdana; the Irish Arts Council. For more information see his website : http://www.philipcasey.com
Don’t forget
The theme for this year’s competition is Heroes and Heroines. The closing date will be Friday 2nd October. Please send entries to Mr. Powell at: mjp@st-augustines.wilts.sch.uk or hand them in to the Library. | 05/10/2009 |
| No | The Year 9 Cilip Carnegie Shadowing group held a video conference with Christ the King College in Preston, Lancashire on Fri 10th July to discuss the books shortlisted and the eventual winner of this year's prize. It was an exciting opportunity to develop links with another school and to use reading as the bridge. Mr. Portlock set up the equipment and the video link for us. We enjoyed the novelty of seeing students and a school so far away from our own. Both groups introduced themselves and described their schools before moving on to talk about the important subject of books. We discussed favourite characters, books, and villains from the shortlist. There was agreement between both groups on the winning book (Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd) but we differed as to what was our own favourite. Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks was the book favoured by St. Augustine's pupils. We moved on to a general discussion on the topic of age banding and then each student had the opportunity to recommend a book to the other group before signing off with a Mexican wave. | 02/09/2009 |
| No | St. Augustine's is hosting the Secondary School Librarian's Forum on 2nd June. The College will welcome School Librarians and Learning Resource Centre Managers from across the county. The Library will be closed to all students from 1.30pm on this day. | 02/06/2009 |