The first week back after the summer holidays is now over. New pupils and staff are settling into the school and the cycle of classes, days, weeks and terms begins.
The library has continued to prove to be very popular at lunchtimes with upwards of 40/45 pupils being our maximum number of users. A variety of activities take place during the short 40 minutes with pupils doing the following on an informal, mostly self-led basis:
- Personal reading
- Homework; study; research
- Computers for leisure use (games, internet browsing, etc) or for school work – which ALWAYS gets priority.
- Boardgames: Chess; draughts; Connect4; Mastermind; Kerplunk
- Magic the Gathering – decks are available to borrow.
- Pokemon – pupils bring in their own decks to play
- Just ‘chilling’ and relaxing
Currently we have one formal activity, Dungeons & Dragons, which will run every Thursday lunchtime, starting about 12:40 and running for approximately 30 minutes. Due to the short time scale and the difficulty in running a D&D game in 30 minutes, there are (slightly) condensed level 3 player character sheets available and the ‘adventure’ will mostly be a ‘dungeon crawl’ clearing out the monsters.
This activity will run on a first-come-first-served basis, or pupils can book in advance if they wish. There are 4, maybe 5 at a push, spaces available.
Any other suggestions?
There could be opportunities for other more formal activities, if pupils and / or staff are interested, both in joining in and helping to run or supervise the activity. Ideas, so far, include:
- Reading or Book group? Including helping to choose books for the library.
- Chess or draughts competition? (We have a small trophy for our only chess competition 10+ years ago)
- D&D Miniature painting? (Trophy, The Golden Goblin, was competed for in the early 2000s, and is ready and waiting for a new generation.)
- Magic the Gathering Competition
- Helping in the library – if there is enough interest, the Pupil Librarian scheme can be reestablished.
If you are interested in any of these or have your own ideas, let Mrs Sinclair know.
The library is your space, and with your support and cooperation we can try and make it how you would like to see it, within reasonable parameters and school policies.
