Curriculum
Everybody associated with the school is encouraged to read and share their literacy experiences. This includes students, staff and parents. Our Library sits at the heart of the school and everything it achieves. From day one in year 7 every student receives an additional period in their timetable dedicated to a reading session in the Library.
The Library
RECOMMENDED READING
Click here for a list of recommended summer holiday reading if you are joining Year 7 in September.
Click here for a list of books with a medieval theme that you might like to try.
Students from Year 8 to Year 11 can select from the Foundation Reading List, Higher Reading List or Pro Reading List depending on your level of reading and whether you like a challenge.
Students studying A Level Mathematics should click here for a list of recommended books. The University of Cambridge's Mathematical Reading List also has some useful recommendations.
Don't forget that Lewisham's libraries are a great resource for bored teenagers during the school holidays, with free access to books, the internet and a programme of holiday activities including free swimming for under 16s who have a library card.. You can find out more here.
LEWISHAM BOOK AWARD
Lewisham schools are once again joining with the public libraries in promoting the annual Lewisham Book Award, with titles chosen by pupils. You can start reading the books on the shortlist over the summer hollidays. Borrow them from any Lewisham Library from the end of July. Click here to see the list of shortlisted books.
AUTHOR VISIT - JOSEPH DELANEY
Joseph Delaney, author of the Spook's series of books, came to our school library as part of his national tour to promote his latest book, Spook's Nightmare. Readers of his books from all year groups attended the session and really enjoyed finding out the background to the stories. Joseph told us many of his secrets about where his ideas come from and how he researches them. His top tip for writing a book was to record every idea that comes to you. Joseph jots his on a piece of paper which he puts in an envelope, then at the end of the year he tips out all the pieces and begins to plan his new story.
DEMOCRACY COMPETITION
We held a Democracy competition at the time of the General Election - students had to design their own political party, produce a manifesto containing a local, national and international issue and state their policies in relation to the issues.
The winners were the Children Are The Future Party - Gio Paris, Stephen Uregbula, Leroy Da Silva and Chandler Walters of S8F. In second place were the Democratic Manipulators - Joshua Lawrence and Luka O'Neill of R7G.
POETRY JAM
We hold Poetry Jam in the Library every half term where students and staff get together to share their experiences of poetry through readings and performance. Click here for a flavour of the event, and maybe even get inspired to come up with your own contribution for the next Poetry Jam.
VISIT TO PENGUIN PUBLISHERS WITH EOIN COLFER
A group of Year 7 students, all keen Artemis Fowl fans, were selected to visit Penguin publishers in central London. The students are all big fans of Eoin Colfer, having read and enjoyed all the Artemis Fowl books, so it was a real treat for them to visit the publishers and meet the author. The boys had a wonderful day and you can read one student's account of the visit here.
CHARLIE HIGSON VISIT
Author Charlie Higson and a BBC News film crew visited our school library to meet with H7F students. Charlie is well-known among young people as the author of the highly successful series of Young Bond novels, while parents and carers will remember him from the cult BBC comedy series The Fast Show.
Charlie read an excerpt from his latest book The Enemy. He was then interviewed by the BBC about the 70th anniversary of Puffin publishing which is being celebrated in 2010. Our students also got a chance to have their say - click here to view the BBC clip.
FOREST HILL PUPILS WIN 1st & 2nd PLACES IN LEWISHAM BOOK AWARD CHALLENGE
They walk into a room and are immediately put into a team with people they have not met before. In less than an hour they have to produce a joint presentation based on one of the books from the Challenge shortlist. Finally, they stand up in a room of 70 people, most of whom they have never met before, and present their work. A challenge that many adults would find difficult! Our boys met the challenge magnificently. They were a credit to their families and the school.
1st place - Kavit Thakrar & Enam Hussein
2nd place - Jefferson Marcel, Segun Loremikan & Ali SHeikh Ali
Finalists - Ben Goode, Tommy Dixon, Dylan Lewis, Thuso Nkala & Stephen Uregbula
WRITING COMPETITION
The winners of the Library Writing Competition were Udo Agada (D9G), Aaron Bishop, Sean Bostock and Sebastien Knapps (all R9G), Kavit Thakrar and Joshua Correia (D8G), Lewis French-Simon and Theo Kabeya (D7F) and Tom Binns (D7G).
The winners all won a trip to the cinema to see Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief - you can read their account of the trip here
AUTHOR VISIT
We recently had a visit from Sarwat Chadda, author of "Devil's Kiss". Click here to see the VoiceThread created by Miss Webb showing how much the students enjoyed his visit.
BOOKED UP
Booked Up is a national programme run by the Booktrust and supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Booked Up's goal is to encourage and support reading for pleasure by providing each Year 7 pupil in England with a free book from a list of 12 specially selected titles. Last year's programme was a huge success with over 672,000 children receiving their free Booked Up book.
Ms Webb is a member of the panel that is deciding on the shortlist for next autumn's Year 7 and brought the books into school for our students to help make the selection. There are 80 books on the longlist that need to be read and evaluated. Ultimately we must make sure the list has something for everyone, boys and girls, both easy and harder reading and that it is representative of all our cultures.
Ms Webb read 76 books in 40 days. The shortlist will be announced on 12 June 2010.
LEWISHAM BOOK QUIZ
Congratulations to the Year 8 students who took part in the Lewisham Book Quiz - Forest Hill School took 1st and 3rd place against seven other Lewisham schools. Well done boys!