The National Year of Reading (October 1998-August 1999) was a national campaign to highlight reading and promote it to as wide a range of people as possible. With much support from the media and from famous personalities, the year had a high profile and allowed many initiatives to take off and get noticed. Although the year has now ended, it has served only to increase the profile given to reading promotions and many continue under the National Reading Campaign's slogan Read On.

How did Pembroke School Library mark the year?

Recommended reads by staff started to feature weekly as Book of the Week in the Staff Bulletin, and will continue to continue after the year has finished.

October 1998: Language in Orbit: Poetry
National Poetry Day on 8 October formed the focus for this month's activities. The Library held lunchtime poetry readings, with staff and pupils reciting their favourites. Limerick competitions produced some amusing results - congratulations to Lee from Year 11 and to Mrs S Diment, who received prizes for the most amusing and original entries, and thanks to Mr Peter Preece for judging and to the FPSA for supporting the event with prize money. To continue the spirit of the day, 'poem bites' were displayed on noticeboards across the school.

November 1998: Early Years
Brave staff submitted photographs of themselves as babies/toddlers for a 'Guess the Baby' competition, which formed part of an Early Years display, mounted by the Library in the hall foyer. Deciding who was who proved a testing task, but well done to Trudi from Year 11, Michael from Year 7 and Antony from Year 7, who tied for first place and received their prizes in assembly.

A lively buzz of interest reigned in the Library as pupils and staff browsed the range of books available from the Book Fair. Many returned the following day to purchase books they had liked the look of.

November also saw the launch of the Fantasy Quest Reading Challenge for Years 7 and 8. Passports, bookmarks and review sheets were issued at a swift rate, as pupils rushed to join. Pupils had until the end of March 1999 to tackle 6, 12 or 18 books to complete the challenge and receive a special certificate.

January 1999: Screen Reads
'Screen Reads of the Week' featured in the Staff Bulletin throughout January. Displays on the theme were mounted in 'A' corridor, and in the Library, where Library users were tempted by the screen read titles on display.

February 1999: Search and Read - Reading for Information
GNVQ Leisure and Tourism students, with support from Geography Department staff, compiled and launched an Internet Quiz, challenging pupils in Years 7-9 to answer a series of questions using the World Wide Web.

March 1999: Sports Reading - Read All About It!
Sports displays, promoting sports information books and sports stories, were mounted in March in the 'A' corridor and the Library. Many thanks to the PE Department for the loan of posters and equipment!

A Scrabble Club, for Year 9 initially, was launched with the help of Mrs Sinclair, who acquired two sets for the club. Members meet every Wednesday at 1.20 pm to develop their word power and pit their wits against each other.

April 1999: Tune into Reading - Songs and Lyrics
A musical theme for April enabled displays to look at the power of music and to promote music books, including a new series in the Library - Sound Trackers. Titles include 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop, Reggae, Rock n'Roll, and Heavy Metal.

To mark International Children's book day on April 2nd, the Staff Bulletin Book of the Week had a French flavour, featuring Le petit prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

May 1999: Reading without print - access for all
The Library mounted a display featuring non-print-based reading matter, including a booklist in Braille and stories on tape available for listening to on the Library cassette player.

World Book Day, April 23rd, saw the distribution to all pupils of the £1 vouchers, together with a number of activities related to the works of Shakespeare, to celebrate the day and Shakespeare's birthday. Pupils and staff were challenged to guess which Shakespearean character the bar-of-soap-bearing Librarian was meant to be - well done to Marc (Year 11) and Trudi (Year 11) and Mr Williams of the Art Department!

A special World Book Day Shakespeare display marked the event in the Library, along with a number of competitions - Shakespearean Animals, Shakespearean Character Anagrams and Shakespearean Misquotations. Well done to sixth-former Jonathan and to Rhian from Year 10.

June 1999: Read Around the World - holidays and travel
The international aspect of June's theme was marked by the launch of the Library's own site on the World Wide Web.

A number of book-related events took place as part of Pembrokeshire Libraries Week (7-11 June). Pupils voted for their favourite books and designed jackets for books they had enjoyed reading. Mrs Cumine and Mrs Morgan kindly gave up their time to provide lunchtime 'Tall Tales and Punchy Poems' reading sessions. A Book Fair, lucky dip and a competition to decide how many books there were in the School Library were also popular.

July 1999: Read All About It: Newspapers and Magazines
July's theme was the stimulus to take a fresh look at the newspapers and magazines taken by the Library. The result, after canvassing opinions from students and staff, was a broader range of newspapers and magazines, and a representative selection of foreign newspapers and magazines was purchased.