Crisis at Christmas 2015

Thousands of people will be homeless this Christmas.

Each year, some of the staff at TRS choose to make a donation to Crisis instead of sending Christmas cards.  This year the total raised is £470, which will reserve 21 places for homeless people this Christmas.

Crisis is a charity which offers shelter, companionship and life-changing services to people who are homeless.  To find out more visit the Crisis website.

Christmas 'Take a Risk' competition

By popular demand, we have extended our Christmas Take a Risk competition for another week or until the box is empty.  

So, don't delay come and Take a Risk in the Discovery Library today!

Recent Word of the Week winners!

Discovery Library

Beguile

Verb: To charm (someone) into doing something they wouldn't normally do.

chosen by Kaan (7 SW)

Endeavour

Verb: Try hard to do or achieve something.

chosen by Mia (7BL)

   

Nonchalant

Adjective: Casually calm and relaxed; seemingly unconcerned or indifferent, cool.

chosen by Shyanne (7SW)

Biometrics

Noun: Use of mathematical measurements to analyze unique physical characteristics (such as fingerprints) to identify a person.

chosen by David (7AN)

Mazurka

Noun: A lively Polish dance in triple time. 

chosen by Nico (7AM)

Peruse

Verb: To read (something) typically in a thorough or careful way; or, to look at or read (something) in an informal or relaxed way

chosen by Yasmin (7HA)

Distraught

Adjective: Very worried and upset

chosen by Henry (7BL)

Astronomical 

Adjective: 1) Relating to astronomy, which is the scientific study of the universe and of objects that exist naturally in space, such as the moon, the sun, planets and stars. 2) Extremely large

chosen by Holly (7SW)

Ontology

Noun: The philosophical study of the nature of being.

chosen by Fleur (8SD)

Polymath

Noun: A person of great and varied learning

chosen by Evie (7SW)

Consequence

Noun: A result of a particular action or situation, often one that is bad or not convenient

chosen by Brooklyn (7AM)

Deduce

Verb: To reach a conclusion about something by reasoning.

chosen by Fleur (9HE)

Discombobulate

Verb: Confuse or disconcert (someone)

chosen by Shelby (7HR)

Impartial

Adjective: Not favouring one side more than the other; not biased.

chosen by Abigail (8MA)

Magniloquent

Adjective: To speak in a bombastic manner.

chosen by Rhys (8HA)

Flabbergasted

Verb: To be shocked or surprised

chosen by Olivia (7MP)

Machiavellian

Adjective: Very cunning, deceitful in your dealings.

chosen by Rosanna (7MP)

Consecutive

Adjective: Following one after the other.

chosen by Yasmin (7MP)

Vermillion

Noun: A bright orange-red colour.

chosen by Scarlett (7MP)

Phenomenon

Noun: A remarkable person or thing.

chosen by Megan (7FH)

Embezzlement

Noun: To steal money that you have been trusted with.

chosen by Jamie (7FH)

Quench

Verb: To stop being thirsty by drinking something.

chosen by Kasey Austin (7BC)

Bibliopole

Noun: A person who buys and sells book, especially rare or decorative ones.

chosen by Christopher (7MP)

Enjambment

Noun: In poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or couplet into another.

chosen by Aragan (7MB)

Ravenous

Adjective:  Very hungry.

chosen by Luka (7CS)

War Memorial Library

Pulchritudinous

Adjective: Physically beautiful; comely.

chosen by Deona Simpson (13BA)

Annihilate

Verb:To utterly destroy/obliterate.  2) In Physics, to covert (a subatomic particle) into radiant energy.

chosen by Erin (12NA)

Introvert

Noun:  In Psychology, someone who is quiet, shy, unsociable and non-confrontational.  Also not talkative.  A person predominantly concerned with their own thoughts and feelings rather than with external things.

chosen by Phoebe, Tanisha, Ally, Katherine (Year 10 Psychology)

Biosemiotics

Noun: The study of how the organism and life can be understood as an interpretation of how chemical and electrical communication is performed and understood.

chosen by Mr Carrick (Science)

Metamorphosis

Noun: A complete change of the physical form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.

chosen by Mrs Nolan

Layman

Noun: A person who is not a member of the clergy; or, someone who is not trained in or does not have a specialist knowledge of a particular subject.

chosen by Ewan (12KN)

Nostalgia

Noun: A sentimental longing or wistful affection for things that happened in the past

chosen by Aliyah (12AP)

Diegetic (sound)

Noun: Diegetic sound is any sound that can be paired with what is happening in a film or on TV, and whose source is either visible, or is relevant to the action: a) Voices of characters; b) Sounds made by objects in the story c) Music represented as coming from instruments in the story space (= source music)

chosen by Mr Beckett (Music)

Valediction

Noun: The act of saying goodbye or quite literally a farewell speech.

chosen by Harry (13MS)

Diorama

Noun: A model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit.

chosen by Ms Roberts (Librarian)

Supercilious

Adjective: Behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others.

chosen by Mr Contreras-Ramis (Spanish)

Juxtapose

Verb: Place next to each other or side by side for contrasting effect.

chosen by Eden (10SF)

Aurora

Noun:  Dawn; 2. A natural light display, usually green, red or yellow, that moves across the sky in polar regions

chosen by Aurora (10AG)

Callous

Adjective: To be cruel or unkind.

chosen by Rebecca (13 MS)

Parados

chosen by Lucy (13 HB)

Noun:  1) (In Ancient Greek Drama) the first choral passage recited or sung by the chorus at their entrance.  2) A passage in an Ancient Greek theatre between the auditorium and the skene by which spectators had access to the theatre and actors might come and go during a play.

Milquetoast

Noun: A person who is timid or unassertive.

chosen by Mrs Nolan (Librarian)

Acquiesce

Verb: To accept something reluctantly but without protest.

chosen by Camille (11LC)

Schadenfreude

Noun: Pleasure derived from the pain of others.

chosen by Corin (12SU)

Relaxation

Noun: A feeling of refreshing calm and an absence of stress or worry.

chosen by Kyeisha (11BH)

Phosphorus

Noun: A toxic flammable nonmetallic element, which appears luminous in the dark.  It exists in two forms, white and red.

chosen by Rebecca (11WH)

Institutionalize 

Verb: 1) To establish something (activity or practice) as a convention or norm in an organization or culture; 2) Place or keep (someone) in a residential institution

chosen by Brandon (11CO)

Cooperage

Noun: A cooper’s business or place of work, making barrels and casks.

chosen by Ross (11MO)

Querulous

Adjective: Complaining in a whining or peevish way.

chosen by Christopher (10SF)

Pulchritude

Noun: Physical beauty.

chosen by Mr Lucas (Geography)

Oleaginous

Adjective: Exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious.

chosen by Mr Beckett (Music)

Christmas Books into Films 2015

Why not enjoy a good book this Christmas holiday? Come and browse our display of Christmas books and books with a film tie-in on TV over the Christmas holidays in the Discovery library!

Also, School Librarian, Helen Smith, has compiled her annual list of Christmas book and film tie-ins that are on TV over the Christmas Period. Please click on the link below to view: Christmas TV List 2015

Let it Snow! Seasonal Reads in the War Memorial Library

Let it Snow! Display in the War Memorial Library

We have lots of great titles in the both the Discovery and War Memorial libraries, including those in our ‘new books’ section so please feel free to browse and borrow.

Biographies and New Books in the War Memorial Library

Are You Ready To Take A Risk?

The Library’s ‘Take a Risk’ competition is back by popular demand for Christmas! 

To take part, all you need to do is borrow a mystery ‘Take A Risk Book’, fill in the short questionnaire and you will automatically win a prize, and have your name entered into a free prize draw with the chance to win more prizes. PLUS there are spot prizes to be won!  

See a Librarian in the Discovery Library for details - Everyone's a winner!

Using social media to encourage students to read

As well as posting student book reviews on the Library blog , we are now encouraging students to write Twitter reviews, which, when handed in to the Library, will be tweeted @RavensbourneSch and to the relevant authors who have Twitter accounts.

To create a Twitter book review for our Twitter site you simply have to write your review, including the author and title and your name, using only 140 characters. Don't forget that spaces count as characters.

Either fill out a grid (ask a Librarian for one) and hand it in to a Librarian or create your tweet in Word and email it to the Library.

Students whose book reviews are blogged or tweeted will receive a reward point.  We will let you know via your Form Tutor that review has been tweeted and that you have received a reward point.  A note will be sent, which will include a link to the twitter account. We will let you English teacher know too.

Get reading and reviewing!

I Spy A Great Read!

With the tremendous success of the latest James Bond film, SPECTRE, we have put together a display of spy books for you to borrow and browse in the Discovery Library.

We have books by James Bond’s original creator, Ian Fleming, as well as Spy High, award winning Liar and Spy by Rachel Stead, and the excellent Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.

Anthony Horowitz is the latest author to bring James Bond to life in his new book Trigger Mortis, which promises to be a thrilling read!  It's on our wish list so watch this space!

The War Memorial at TRS

At the Remembrance Service at the Bromley Methodist Church on Sunday 8th November, Brownies, Scouts and Guides, some of whom attend TRS, contributed to the service.  The Scouts contribution included the mention of Clifford George Grail and the TRS War Memorial.

The War Memorial Library at TRS is particularly dedicated to Clifford George Grail, Captain 7th North Staffordshire Regiment, who was killed in action at Gallipoli on 23rd July 1915 aged 24.  He was House Master at the school, originally Bromley County Grammar, from 1911 and was founder of the school corps or cadet group and would have inspired lots of boys to sign up and join the war.

On 11th November at 11.00 am, pupils and staff at TRS observed a minute silence to remember all those who fought and died in the conflicts around the world.  

Remembrance Assemblies also took place this week for KS3, KS4 and KS5, with an entrance song sung by Year 9s.

Remembrance 2015

Remembrance Day takes place on 11 November every year in Commonwealth Countries, marking the official ending of the WWI on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, Armistice Day.   A two minute silence is held on this day every year so that we do not forget the millions killed, injured and affected by war and people wear remembrance poppies.  The Discovery and War Memorial Libraries have special Remembrance displays of war time books for you to borrow.

The Ravensbourne School War Memorial, initially dedicated to students and staff who gave their lives in the Great War, is situated in the KS4/5 Library; known as the War Memorial Library. It was added to again after World War II. The war memorial is important to the life of the school and we mention it often.

As the War Memorial Library is for the use of KS4 and 5 students and staff only and we are aware that the KS3 students do not get to see the memorial, a timetable of visits has been arranged for the Year 7 students to visit during Form Time this term.

Autumn Half Term

Our words of the week this week in the Discovery and War Memorial Libraries were 'vermillion', chosen by Scarlett in 7MP and 'relaxation', chosen by Kyeisha in 11BH, which one of our colleagues commented seemed very apt for the half term week (if the weather stays fine!).

The Saturday poem published in this weekend's Guardian captures beautifully, and with pathos, the changing of the seasons at this time of year:

Summer for an Instant by George Orwell

Summer-like for an instant the autumn sun bursts out,
And the light through the turning elms is green and clear;
It slants down the path and the ragged marigolds glow
Fiery again, last flames of the dying year.

A blue-tit darts with a flash of wings, to feed
Where the coconut hangs on the pear tree over the wall;
He digs at the meat like a tiny pickaxe tapping
With his needle-sharp beak as he clings to the swinging shell.

Then he runs up the trunk, sure-footed and sleek like a mouse,
And perches to sun himself; all his body and brain
Exalt in the sudden sunlight, gladly believing
That the cold is over and the summer is here again.

But I see the umber clouds that drive for the sun
And a sorrow no argument ever can take away
Goes through my heart as I think of the nearing winter,
And the transient light that gleams like the ghost of May;

And the bird, unaware, blessing the summer eternal,
Joyfully labouring, proud of his strength, gay-plumed,
Unaware of the hawk and the snow and the frost-bound nights,

And of his death foredoomed.

Cressida Cowell wins 2015 Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity

Children’s author, Cressida Cowell, has been awarded the Philosophy Now Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity for her How to Train Your Dragon books.  The award honours individuals who have made “an outstanding contribution to combating poor reasoning, unexamined assumptions and entrenched habits of thought”.

Cressida Cowell’s much loved books were praised for containing “startlingly vivid descriptive language” but also for encouraging young readers to reflect deeply on complex emotional, political, historical and moral themes.

On choosing Cowell, the award panel decided that “nothing combats stupidity in the world more effectively than encouraging children to think. Children are great thinkers and their intellectual abilities are all too often underestimated”.

Previous winners of the award have including Noam Chomsky and Raymond Tallis.  This is the first time that the award has been given to a children's author.

To read more on this story visit the book section of The Guardian website.  

The How To Train Your Dragon series is available to borrow from the Discovery Library.  

Carve Out Time To Read This Halloween!

Why not enjoy a ‘spooky’ read this half term? 

Come and have a look at our Halloween display in the Discovery library and borrow a scary book!

Carve Out Time To Read Discovery Library Display

In the War Memorial Library, we have put together a display of horrifying, spine-tingling books - from terrifying ghost stories like The Woman in Black to supernatural tales of werewolves, vampires and zombies such as Darren Shan's Zom-B and Sally Green's excellent Half Bad and Half Wild novels.  There are also classic horror stories including Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Borrow them if you dare!

Read me .... if you dare! WML display

Winner of Man Booker Prize 2015 announced

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James has won this year’s Man Booker Prize.  The novel is a fictionalised history of the attempted murder of Bob Marley in 1976 and Marlon James is the first Jamaican author to win the prize.

Image from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

The Big Draw at The Ravensbourne School!

The Big Draw International Drawing Festival is being celebrated at The Ravensbourne School on Monday 12^th October.  The Art Department along with the Library staff have organised a form time activity which links literacy with Art Work.

The Big Draw is the world's biggest drawing festival with thousands of enjoyable, and mainly free, drawing activities which connect people of all ages with museums, outdoor spaces, artists, designers, illustrators - and each other.  It is for anyone who loves to draw, as well as those who think they can't!

Illustration by Children's Laureate, Chris Riddell.

This year’s Big Draw 2015 takes place during October and the theme is  Every Drawing Tells A Story.

National Poetry Day

Yesterday, 8th October, was the 21st National Poetry Day.  The theme this year was 'light' and everyone was encouraged to 'break the tyranny of prose' for the day by sharing poetry in imaginative ways. Forward Arts Foundation, in partnership with The Poetry Society, coordinated the celebrations and created a free anthology of poems about light, including this powerful poem by Dylan Thomas:


Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

(Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953)

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

To find out more about poetry visit visit The Poetry Society website.

Man Booker Prize - shortlisted titles from the archive



Since it began in 1969, over 250 books have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.  As a starting point for Young Adults, the organisers of the prize have selected a list of ten shortlisted titles that they think will appeal to sixth form students. 

Some of these titles, together with other shortlisted and winning titles, are on display in the War Memorial Library, including The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (winner 2002) and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (shortlisted in 2005).

Come and browse and borrow these and other titles.

The winner of the year's Man Booker Prize will be announced on Tuesday, 13th October.

Post-a-Read 2015

Thank you to everyone who told us what they were reading over the summer holidays. We had postcards from USA to Devon and Macedonia to Macau and lots of excellent book recommendations!

Come and have a look at our display, which is on the noticeboard outside the Discovery Library.

Post-A-Read 2015 display

Man Booker Prize 2015 shortlist announced

The Man Booker Prize is awarded for fiction and is open, for the second time, to authors writing in English regardless of their nationality.

The six books on the list are:

• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Jamaica)
• Satin Island by Tom McCarthy (UK)
• The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria)
• The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (UK)
• A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (US)
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (US)

The winner of the year's Man Booker Prize will be announced on Tuesday, 13th October.

Previous Man Booker Prize winners are available to borrow from the War Memorial Library.

Students Who Read Do Better in their GCSEs

A study by Cambridge University has found that students who put in an extra hour of homework or spent the time reading, did better in their GCSEs, scoring 23 points more than the average.  An extra hour a day of television, internet or computer game time in Year 10 is linked to poorer grades at GCSE, approximately two fewer GCSE grades (e.g. going from B to D).  

At TRS, all students from Year 7 onwards are expected to be reading and they all carry a reading book.  We have two excellent Libraries with three qualified Librarians, who are able to encourage and promote reading for pleasure.  As our students know, reading helps improve their spelling, vocabulary, ability to study as well as improving confidence and behaviour.

Below is our 'Why I Read ...' poster that we use in our brainstorming and borrowing induction lesson and for reader promotion activities.

Welcome Back!

We would like to welcome back all the TRS students and staff and welcome all those who are new to the school - we hope that you enjoy your time here! 

We hope you had a great summer - we received some postcards telling us what you were reading and look forward to displaying these. 

We have a great collection of fiction and non-fiction to browse and borrow in our Libraries, with Librarians on hand to help with homework and recommend a good read - just ask!

Funny Books in the Discovery Library

Library opening times: 

Remember that for the KS3 students, the Discovery Library is open before and after school as well as at lunch time for quiet study. For KS4 students, the War Memorial Library is open at lunch time and for Post 16 students, it is available to use throughout the day including morning break.

Competitions and Displays:

Recommended Reads

Look out for our Library competitions, including our weekly Word of the Week competition, with loads of great prizes to be won. We have changing book displays and displays of new books to encourage reading for pleasure. We are happy to consider buying any books that we do not currently have – just ask! There are suggestion boxes too for any comments or suggestions you may have.

Crime Books in the War Memorial Library

We look forward to seeing you in the Discovery and War Memorial Libraries.

Your Librarians - Ms. Roberts, Mrs Bhandari and Mrs Nolan.