At St Martin’s the library is at the heart of the school, a hive of activity that is a very popular place for students to discover, read, learn and relax.
We believe strongly that reading for pleasure plays a key role in raising attainment and supports a wide range of pupils’ academic, personal, social and emotional learning outcomes. Our Library collection provides resources to inspire our students to pursue knowledge, increase understanding, and discover enjoyment through good quality fiction and non-fiction.
Students are welcome in the library anytime from 8:00am to 4:35pm. There are various places to sit quietly and read or study. There are also 7 computers to use for homework, Dr Frost practice, or other assigned school projects.
For students who wish to study afterschool, we ask that they book their place in the library by the end of lunch on the day or parents/carers can email library@saint-martins.net to book regular slots. This allows us to manage the space, provide an overflow room if required and register the students for safeguarding purposes.
The library is managed by our eager Librarian Mrs Wells. Mrs Wells has over 12 years’ experience working in schools, including 9 years working as a Teaching Assistant/Librarian in a primary school setting. She is very enthusiastic and loves to help guide students on their reading journey.
Mrs Tones our Career’s Leader and is also based in the library. She is here to organise careers events; help with personal statements and college applications; sign-post students to the guidance; organise trips and coordinate with third parties to provide a wide range of careers information. She is available during opening times to help.
We have an enthusiastic group of students who have volunteer to represent their form as Library Council members. They volunteer to help Mrs Wells at break and lunchtimes, as well as getting involved in events such as the Christmas Fair; Scholastic Book Fairs; second-hand book sales; World Book Day and much more. They play a vital part in choosing and reviewing books for the library.
We sell all the stationery essentials you may need during the day. Just ask in the library for the items you require.
Our year 7’s had the opportunity to choose their own book to take home and keep from a list of 17 titles. They are all carefully selected by a panel of experts to ensure quality, suitability and to encourage reading for pleasure.
At St Martin’s we value reading so much that we think it is important that every student entering St Martin’s should have the chance to not just borrow books from our library but own a book to take home. There are two copies of each of the titles available in the library to borrow, so if they were struggling to choose they can still get a chance to read all the titles.
This year we have had two Scholastic Book Fairs in school. In total we have raised £240.25 in books for the school.
This year marks the 25th birthday of the official World Book Day which is on Thursday 3rd March this year. In order to accommodate our visiting author, Seth Burkett, we will be celebrating our Alternative World Book Day on the last day of term, 8th April. Not only will we have Seth taking assemblies for years 7 – 10 and some writing workshops, but also a non-uniform day to raise funds for the library and games in the library during the week commencing 4th April to raise money for the World Book Day charity.
The £1 World Book Day tokens will be distributed on 3rd March as well as the individual and form winners of our Read for Good Readathon will be announced during our standing assembly.
The World Book Day website is full of activities including competitions, podcasts, live events and more.
Read for Good is a charity that provides books and professional storytellers for children in hospital. Their mission is to improve the outcomes for all children in the UK by encouraging and enabling children to develop a love of reading. Every £1 we raise for Read for Good, they will give us 20% back in Scholastic Book Vouchers, which allows us to buy more books for the school library – so everyone’s a winner.
This year we ran our Readathon from 17th January – 20th February 2022 for all the year 7 and 8 form groups. To encourage some healthy competition we ran competitions for the student and form who could raise the most money and read the most minutes.
The class prizes were kindly donated by Morrisons Supermarket, Hinckley with a hamper of sweets and chocolates for the students and a bottle of wine for the form tutor. Individual prizes of a book stack and an easter egg were put together by Mrs Wells our librarian.
World Book Day this year overlapped with so many other events at Saint Martin’s Catholic Academy that they decided to hold our own Alternative World Book Day on the last day of term, 8th April.
On the day, the author, Seth Burkett made a real impact with his assemblies to years 7 – 10. He has written 10 books varying from his successful fiction series Tekkers, to his autobiographical account of playing football professionally in Sri Lanka, Titan’s of the Teardrop Isle. He talked about his career as an author and writer, stressing the importance of resilience and hard work.
He then ran some writing workshops where he demonstrated how he uses his writing skills working for companies such as Land Rover and Nike – developing advertising material for new products. These were really eye-opening sessions that helped to develop an understanding of building a brand and persuasive writing.
For those who were brave enough to dress-up as book character, there was a chance to win book prizes and Easter eggs. There were so many fantastic entries, students had made a real effort with their costumes. Seth chose the winners with Trafford, Grace and Emma taking the top three.
World Book Day this year overlapped with so many other events at Saint Martin’s Catholic Academy that they decided to hold our own Alternative World Book Day on the last day of term, 8th April.
© 2025 Copyright St Thomas Aquinas - Catholic Multi-Academy Trust | STA-CMAT is a limited company by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number: 08090890)
