Characters step out of books for Mullion school library launch: PICTURES and VIDEO
10:00am Sunday 17th February 2013 in News
Characters step out of books for Mullion school library launch
Book characters stepped out of the pages to help Mullion School celebrate the launch of its new library last week.
Over the past few months the old caretaker’s bungalow at Mullion School has been transformed into an enlarged library and careers resource centre fit for the 21st Century.
The original library, while still functional and popular with pupils, had been squeezed and shrunk to accommodate the onward march of computers.
The opening ceremony was marked with a series of competitions and other events, which saw well over 100 pupils taking up the challenge |to dress up as a favourite literary character.
First prize went to Lucinda Harry as Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. A very close runner-up was the White Rabbit, aka Jonathan Kitto.
Abi Mitten, as Little Red Riding Hood, and Charlie Gibbard as Willy Wonka were also commended, with many other students dressing in costumes to represent books of all kinds.
A second competition, to produce a “literary cake,” attracted a large number of high-quality entries, so there were difficult decisions for the judges.
Winning entries were the Sherlock Holmes cake baked and decorated by Izzy Collinson and Tegwyn Hagan; the Harry Potter cake from Sarah Morton, Charlotte Douglas, Megan Gribble and Katie Morton; and Willow Cicale-Brown’s Miss Havisham cake. Paddington Bear, Lord of the Rings, Esio Trot and Winnie the Pooh were also highly commended.
All winners, runners-up and Kernow Youth Book Award judges were invited to the opening ceremony, where former Pirate FM DJ Bob McCreadie cut the ribbon and later read from his book “Fred the Fabulous Flamingo”.
The invited pupils, governors and staff also enjoyed some of the winning cakes and met other guests.
One pupil was quoted as saying: “I never thought a library could be such a lovely place. The old library was great but this is just brilliant.”
During the rest of February a range of other competitions and activities will take place, including a literary limerick contest and an “extreme reading” photo competition.
Teachers from various subject departments will take different year groups to the new library. There, they will look round, watch a video a group of year eight pupils have made, admire the décor and layout, and enjoy the light and space in the new building.
The video that celebrates the launching of the new library can be seen online at thepacket.co.uk Pupils are also being introduced to a new library management system, which enables them to track their loans, see which books are most popular and read reviews by their fellow pupils, as well as write on themselves.
Librarian Marion Bradley said she was delighted with the new library, adding: “It has taken it to a whole new level, bringing in previously unseen faces.”
