In typical fashion, we kicked off our World Book Day celebrations in March with an author visit from Will Sutcliffe whereby all our Year 9 students were treated to a talk presented by Will on the importance of being sustainable in a world shaped by the realities of the climate crisis. The Year 9s found Will’s talk to be ‘interactive and engaging’ in the ways in which he discussed the ever-present challenges to the environment posed by the wider impact of climate change, and, more crucially, found Will’s discussion of his writing techniques to be rather informative to the formative processes required in writing a book!  Our students were thrilled to have copies of Will’s book, The Summer We Turned Green, specially signed for them, and they were very thankful for the time and efforts that Will took in introducing his work to them.

Earlier, in fervent anticipation of our World Book Day celebrations, students across the Senior School were delighted to be given the opportunity to showcase their creative talents by transforming the doors to their Form Rooms, innovatively ‘redesigning’ them in the style of famous book covers. Staff across the Senior School were incredibly impressed with the efforts of our students, and were completely amazed by how colourfully transformed our corridors looked as they busily schlepped from one lesson to the next throughout each day of the week!

More recently, we took the opportunity to maximise the advantages of a rare sunny day by taking a short walk over to the Cambridge University Library, where our students marvelled at the array of artefacts on display at the Murder by the Book Exhibition. In their linking of the technological advancements made by way of the technological revolution over the last century, our students were fascinated to see the very typewriter used by Agatha Christie herself and to learn about the ways in which technology has transformed how we now see maps. Having just about recovered themselves from the Murder by the Book Exhibition, our students were fascinated by their trip to the University Library’s famed Map Room and commented how they found ‘the silk maps… and the D-Day photographs’ to be very interesting and felt rather piqued at being able to spot our very own school on a first edition OS 25" map of Cambridge from 1888! In the words of one student: “The library was enjoyable and has increased my love for books. I would love to go back there again. I particularly enjoyed the Murder by the Book exhibit, and I have found new love for Agatha Christie. I also loved the maps and looking at the secret maps with the different counties featured as parts of London, and as part of England!”

Staff and students from across the Senior School were especially thankful to all the staff at the University Library for helping to facilitate this fascinating trip for us.

Slightly shining the spotlight away from our literary events, the Senior School Library continues in serving as a hub of extracurricular activities, where students are able to enrich their extracurricular pursuits and participate in some of our most sought after clubs.

The Year 10 Creative Writing Club visited the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge with a focus specifically on the ‘Greece and Rome’ and ‘Italian Art 16th-18th Century’ galleries (as chosen by the students). Our students used their visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum as inspiration for their own creative writing, thus exploring various techniques and approaches used in such works of art as a way of stimulating their own imaginative approaches to the magic of creativity.

From flexing their chess moves at our popular Chess Club to finessing their skills in penmanship at our Creative Writing Club, our students look forward to every session as if it is their first and they are incredibly thankful to our staff who continue to host these events within the Senior Library.