Library
Verulam School Library is centrally located in the main block of the school and adjacent to the Canteen. We are open from 7.40am to 3.15pm, including lunch and break times.
Students can also use the library for quiet reading and study before and after school. Our aim is to promote a love of reading for pleasure and to enhance learning for all students. To encourage reading there are regular displays of featured authors/genres and there are numerous reading challenges which students can undertake in order to secure various rewards. Click here to find out how we promote reading and literacy at Verulam School.
Our Library Web App also gives users access to our full catalogue and search facility, plus news items and other curated material to supplement their studies.
What you will find in the library
Resources
Verulam school library offers a wide range of resources to support and encourage learning across the school curriculum.
Fiction
We currently have approximately 4000 fiction books catering for a wide range of reading abilities including an extensive selection of short books to engage more reluctant readers. The fiction collection is colour coded for ability range to enable students to select books at the appropriate level. Students can also access over 15,000 e-books from the ‘eplatform’ web app. These can be downloaded to their personal devices/phones for reading.
In order to assist students in their book choices the library fiction stock is organised by genre in the following categories: science-fiction and dystopia, animals, sports fiction, historical fiction, horror, crime, classics, war, fantasy, adventure, mystery and humour.
Non-fiction
We currently have approximately 2500 non-fiction books. These are selected to support all the subjects taught in the school.
Supporting learning
Within the English faculty we recognise the importance of reading, encouraging wider reading and reading for pleasure. As such, all Year 7 and 8 pupils take part in fortnightly satellite lessons within the library, benefitting from the knowledge of our experienced librarian and one of our online reading programmes, Accelerated Reader.
Students are initially introduced to their satellite lessons, being led by Mr. Smyth (our librarian), who guides them through completing their first STAR reading assessment; STAR reading assessments allow us to generate information such as students reading ages and ZPD’s which are then tracked and monitored during their development. Secondly, students will be introduced to our digital library and the process of accessing a wide range of texts which suit their interests. Thereafter, satellite lessons will be divided into three equal sections to ensure student engagement, provide adequate scaffold and challenge and to give students the freedom to engage with their individual reads.
- The classroom teacher begins the lesson with reading ‘the short story of the week’, (which our librarian prepares each week to coincide with our current topics of study). The classroom teacher will model how to read this aloud to students, pausing to check for understanding throughout. Students are then directed to Accelerated Reader where they will all complete a short quiz to assess their understanding of the ‘short story of the week’.
- Students then have the opportunity to sit and read their own texts and to use the Accelerated Reader programme to complete any additional quizzes, working towards reaching their personalised targets.
- The final segment of the lesson is then dedicated to students completing a range of post-reading activities based around the text that they are currently reading; these activities help students to locate and record relevant information, make connections across literary texts and to make inferences and generalisations.
Contact
If you have any queries about the library or reading generally please do not hesitate to contact the librarian by emailing admin@verulam.aat.school FAO Librarian.
