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Our School

Library

Welcome to the School Library!

Librarian: Laura Staiano

The library is open to all students throughout the school day for study and for socialising outside of lessons; it provides students with an open, calm space for independent research, quiet reflection, small group activities and immersion in reading for pleasure. All students can borrow books, DVDs and are welcome to come and read the library magazines. We aim to tailor library clubs and activities to interests that the students have and are keen to explore. We currently run a combination of lunchtime and after school clubs (see Extra-Curricular Activities section) including Calm Wednesdays (where pupils are encouraged to engage with some quiet mindful activities), and a very popular Chess Club on Thursday lunchtimes.

REMEMBER if there is a book you would love to read but you cannot find it on the shelves, please speak to Mrs Staiano!
Also, if you have read a book you would like to recommend to your peers that we do not already have, let Mrs Staiano know.

Dont forget, you can follow Waddesdon Community Library on X (formerly Twitter)

Most Popular Borrowed Books So Far This Academic Year (2023-2024)

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The House with Chicken Legs

by Sophie Anderson
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The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins
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I Must Betray You

by Ruta Sepetys
Library

Further Resources

Complete Issues
We have access to Complete Issues which is a diverse collection of entry level journals covering a wide range of topics including the environment, bullying and health. Please contact Mrs Staiano lstaiano@waddesdonschool.com for the log-in details.

The London Library
We have been lucky to have our subsidized The London Library subscription extended for a further year, until October 2024. It is an academic virtual and ‘brick’ library with access to hundreads of thousands of resources including JSTOR. Brilliant for Arts and Humanities A Level and EPQ students. Please contact Mrs Staiano
lstaiano@waddesdonschool.com for more information.

Join Your Local Library Service
We encourage students to join Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire Library Service to access further free resources, including free eAudiobooks:

Buckinghamshire Library Service

Oxfordshire Library Service

Library

Special Features

Carnegie Shadowing Group 2023

Pupils were selected to take part in the Carnegie Shadowing Scheme this year. It is a fantastic opportunity to shadow the Carnegie judges in reading, discussing, and reviewing books on the shortlist for the prestigious Carnegie Medal. The group enjoyed seeing if the judges voted in the same way! The group met once a week on rotation (Thursday after school with Mrs Staiano to discuss the shortlist books/activities and Wednesday lunch with Mr Lee to upload reviews). We had a lovely celebration at the last session discovering the shadowing group winner and the judge’s winner. The group voted ‘I must betray you’ by Ruta Sepetys as the winner (who was also the Carnegie Shadowers group winner) and ‘The Blue book of Nebo’ by Manon Steffan Ros which went to win the judges medal, was one of our runners up. Please see the summer Waddesdon voice for some photos and book reviews.

Author Visit

Steve Cole (celebrated local author and internationally acclaimed writer), visited Waddesdon on Monday 26th June. As well as an inspirational assembly, he also ran a fantastic session with Year 7 and 8 and signed books at lunchtime. We all loved his energy and enthusiasm, a particular hit with the Year 8 boys!

3rd March 2023

World Book Day

We celebrated World Book Day this year (2023) on Friday 3rd March with a variety of book-related activities throughout the day.  

Mrs Staiano (Librarian) started the day by giving a World Book Day assembly promoting ‘Reading for Pleasure’ with the emphasis on looking for reading inspiration everywhere and also featured several teachers giving their book recommendations. 

At lunch and break the Library was filled with pupils coming to find a book in the book swap, filling out the book title quiz or making origami bookmarks. Guess the book in the jar was extremely popular! A member of LMT commented that ‘the atmosphere was brilliant, and it was great to see so many engaging with the activities’. 

Congratulations to Frazer (Yr 7) for winning the ‘Guess the book in the jar’ (he was one of 27 correct guesses, ‘Wonder’ by R.J. Palacio!) and Emily (Yr 10) beat 53 others to get the highest score in the book title quiz. Well done! 

Thank you to everyone who donated books for the Book Swap and also came and took part in the WBD activities in the Library! 

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