New library for Morpeth school

There was much excitement when book-loving youngsters saw their school’s new library.

St Robert’s Catholic First School, a member of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust, unveiled the state-of-the art new facilities, which boast Chrome books and iPads for pupils’ use, as well as a wide range of books.

---

Created from an existing space within the Morpeth-based school’s building, the library’s design was decided in consultation with its young users-to-be.

Headteacher David Sutcliffe explained: “We wanted to create a modern, inspiring space that promotes a love of reading and supports wider learning and wellbeing.

“With this in mind, we identified a bigger, brighter location within the school and set about designing a fresh, new and inviting space to promote our reading for pleasure culture.

“We involved the school council in identifying how the new library should look, and the children helped to choose the colour scheme, furniture and overall theme.”

St Robert’s held two in-school book fairs to help raise funds to stock the new library, and also had many new books donated.

“Every child in the school and nursery now uses the library to choose books to take home and also to read for pleasure or use for research in school,” continued Mr Sutcliffe. 

“The room is in constant use from individuals and groups of children right up to whole classes.

“The children love using it, and there were gasps of delight when they first saw the amazing wall art, sea of books, and lovely new seating and working areas.”

Eight-year-old Jude commented: “I love the new school library – especially the new colour scheme and the book characters on the wall.”

Maria, also aged eight, agreed: “I like how it’s really quiet, and I love all the new books for us to read.”

The next stage in the library’s development will be to train some of the Year 4 children to become ‘mini librarians’ so that they can run library sessions and act as  reading ambassadors throughout the school.

“It’s fantastic to have such an inviting space in school where pupils can enjoy books,” added Mr Sutcliffe. 

“The children love their new library and can’t wait to share what they are reading with each other.”