Library

Head of Department: Mrs M Musselwhite Steel

Library Staff: Mrs Devereaux-Bridge

The Library Department is staffed by a full-time qualified librarian and a full-time library assistant. The Library:

• Provides resources in support of the curriculum of the whole school from Year 7 to 13.
• Provides fiction that will develop a reading habit and encourage reading as a leisure activity.
• Provides wider reading to support Sixth Form study.
• Instructs students in information literacy and the importance of academic honesty.
• Instructs the students in the use of a library for research now and in their future education.
• Provides a study area for all students during the school day.

The library catalogue and circulation system (Oliver) is available within school on the network. At home it can be accessed via the Quick Links menu on the school website. Students are taught and encouraged to search it when looking for resources and to check details of library activities, clubs and competitions.

Computers are available in the library for research and homework. The internet is screened and students are monitored while online.

Year 7 students are taken for library study skills lessons when they first enter the school. They are taught how to use the library, how libraries are organised and how to research topics using hard copy and electronic sources.

Between the two school libraries Year 7 through to Year 13 are well catered for with fiction and non-fiction books. Books are borrowed back and forth between the Tunbridge Wells Campus Library and the Sevenoaks Campus Library.

The library buys three daily newspapers to encourage students to read quality well-written articles and various magazines for leisure and curriculum needs.

Sixth Form students are welcome to use the library during lesson time for silent study. The Library has a collection of recommended  fiction and non-fiction books geared towards exam success at A Level. Wider reading is encouraged to deepen knowledge, enrich exam technique and polish university interview. 

The library runs two main reading activities, both of which give the students the opportunity to get together with local schools: 

• The Fellowship of the Reads is a joint book club with The Skinners’ School, which fosters reading for pleasure. Weekly meetings run between October and February each year. The shortlist of ten books is drawn up by the librarians to include different genres. The books are aimed at a secondary school audience and are intended to stretch readers and promote discussion and debate.
  We invite one of the authors to an after-school event, which is held at either TWGSB or Skinners’. This gives the students a chance to ask questions of the author and find inspiration to become young writers themselves.

• Carnegie Shadowing runs from April to June and is a library-run reading and debating scheme, which culminates in a joint event with TWGGS and The Skinners’ School. Students are nominated by English teachers and/or invited by library staff to take part. They read eight books over 12 weeks, meeting weekly for lively discussion.