Keep Calm and Carry on Revising in the War Memorial Library

This week (18-22 April) is National Revision Week, which is designed to raise awareness of exam stress, and to provide teachers and students with tips, tools and advice to help reduce anxiety and increase exam performance. For more information, as well as tips, planning tools, support and advice visit the National Revision Week website.


We have a good selection of revision resources available in the War Memorial Library – come and have a browse or ask one of the Librarians.  There are some useful GCSE revision websites listed on the blog, as well as Post 16 resources, which provide A-level revision websites and advice on referencing.


One of our P16 lunchtime library helpers has also recommended the Get Revising website, which allows you to organise your time with a study planner, create useful tools including mind-maps and flash cards and discuss your subjects with other students. To check it out visit Get Revising.

Design a Poster for the Discovery Library Competition - Winning Design Up!

Max M in 8SA was the winner of our competition to design a new 'this way' sign for the Discovery Library.

We are delighted to announce that Max's design has now been reproduced and displayed to direct users to the Discovery Library. 

Well done Max!

Joe Craig is coming to TRS

We are delighted to announce that the excellent Joe Craig, author of the thrilling action adventure Jimmy Coates series, will be visiting The Ravensbourne School on Friday 29th April!  Joe will be working with our Year 7 and 8 students and signing copies of his books, which will be available to buy on the day for the special price of £6.

We would love you to enter our competition to publicise Joe's visit by either creating a poster or a bookmark letting other students know about this special event.

The prize will be a signed copy of the Jimmy Coates book of your choice.  To be in with a chance of winning, entries must be with us by Tuesday, 19 April 2016. Entries should be handed in to the Discovery Library.

To find out more about Joe Craig visit his web page or read his blog.

Shakespeare Retold

This year we are celebrating Shakespeare's legacy, as it will be 400 years since his death.  We have put together in the War Memorial Library a display of modern and teenage fiction that re-tell some of Shakespeare's time-less stories for you to browse and borrow.

As part of the celebrations, the British Library is hosting an exhibition entitled Shakespeare in Ten Acts, which runs from Friday 15th April until Tuesday 6th September 2016. 

Graphic Novels - Encouraging Reluctant Readers to Read for Pleasure

Research shows that students who read for up to 30 minutes each day outside of lessons are more likely to achieve beyond the expected levels for their age group than those who never read.

Graphic novels are a great way of encouraging students to read for pleasure, especially amongst reluctant readers.  The artwork reduces the amount of reading a student has to do, allowing them to follow the story at a faster pace and the art can act as a visual prompt for potentially tricky words.

At TRS we have a growing collection of graphic novels in both the Discovery and War Memorial Libraries.  In the Discovery Library, as well as favourites such as The Simpsons titles, we also stock the graphic novel versions of popular titles such as Robert Muchamore’s The Recruit and manga versions of Darren Shan’s Saga of Darren Shan series and James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series.  In the War Memorial Library we have The Hulk andThe Avengers alongside classics such as V for Vendetta, Watchmen and Persepolis.  A love of graphic novels can complement and encourage the discovery of the original novel.

Alex Hayward, former TRS student, and winner of the Jack Petchey Award for outstanding achievement very kindly donated part of his award money to the Libraries for the purchase of graphic novels for the Discovery Library!  These are currently on display and include One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, Salem Brownstone All Along the Watchtowers and Courtney Crumrin. Volume 1, The Night Things. 

Please come and browse and borrow these and the rest of the collection.

CILIP's Carnegie Medal shortlist 2016 announced

CILIP’s Carnegie Medal is awarded each year for an outstanding book for children and young people.  The Carnegie shortlist this year includes eight excellent books, most of which are available now in the War Memorial and Discovery Libraries and the rest are on order.

The short listed books are:

• One by Sarah Crossan

• The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

• There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

• The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

• Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

• The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

• Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

• Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

The shortlist predominately features teen fiction with themes of secrets and lies. It includes previous winner Patrick Ness who, if he wins, would be the first ever author to win the award three times. 

There is strong competition from Costa Book of the Year The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge, a thrilling murder mystery set in Victorian times and the debut novel Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley, a story of two teenage girls who fall in love across the race divide in fifties America.  

To find out more about the books and their authors, go to the Carnegie Shortlist web page and click on the book that you are interested in reading.

Happy reading!

World Book Day 2016 - Book Cover Bake Off Winners Announced

As part of this year's World Book Day celebrations, we held a book cover bake off!  Students were asked to create a cake around the theme of reading and book covers - there were some amazing entries.  The winners were:

First Prize - Simeon 8HA 
for his fantastic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea cake


Second Prize - Lexie Year 7
for her amazing Alice In Wonderland cake


Joint Third Prize- Summer 7FH and Daisy 7SE
for their glorious Ginger Bread Man cake