Learning Resource Centre

The Library, based in the Upper School building, is a bright, welcoming and dynamic room for all students and staff to enjoy. It is a place of study and research, of leisure reading and relaxation. It is always busy, whether during lesson times or at lunch, with accommodation for up to 40 students.

The Library has a stock of over 6,000 items, including fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, newspapers, and careers materials, most of which is available for loan. The Library catalogue has direct links to over 12,000 resources, both books and websites, and can be accessed from all computers within the school. There are also many relevant encyclopaedias and reference books available for pupil’s research purposes. Wiltshire Libraries’ catalogues can be directly accessed, and items reserved and collected from Amesbury or Salisbury libraries.

Students have at least one dedicated Library lesson each fortnight, to help them become familiar with the Library and how it works. They also take part in the Accelerated Reading Scheme, which is jointly run with the English Department. The aim of the scheme is to build a reading culture throughout the school and make reading practice more effective for every student.

Working alongside our Librarian, Student Librarians and Library Prefects are a valued part of the Learning Resource Centre team. Students from all Year Groups act as Student Librarians at lunchtime on a rota basis. They are in charge of issuing and returning books using ‘OLIVER’ the computerised library system. The students gain experience in a ‘customer service’ role and also use their IT skills in a practical way. In addition, they help with tasks in the Library such as shelving and stamping books.

Outside of lesson time, the Library is open to students every lunchtime, with the following special arrangements:

Monday lunchtime – Year 7’s only

Wednesday lunchtime – Key Stage 3 Homework

Friday lunchtime – Quiet reading only

Websites Encouraging All Abilities Of Readers

Site	What Is It About?
www.mrsmad.com	Ths is a lively site with news and reviews dedicated to encouraging reading in young people.
www.teenreads.com	Provides news, book reviews, interviews, author profiles and more.
Accelerated Reader Scheme (click here)	Welcome to Accelerated Reader – when you are ready to take a quiz, click on the link and log in.
https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/	Is the book that you are reading in the Accelerated Reader Scheme?

BioStore – Biometric Identity Technology

The school is using the above technology to record the loan and return of the books in the school’s Resource Centre. BioStore does not store any images of fingers. The recorded templates comprise a set of numbers to represent each person. This set of numbers will be unique within populations of hundreds, or a few thousand, people. However, in the wider population the system is not accurate enough for the templates to be usable for forensic matching with any degree of certainty. A court of law would never be able to use this information as evidence.

The database is protected by a licence key, which means that the database and any backup of its contents can only be accessed on licensed hardware. The licensed hardware is stored in the school’s own secure facility, so that the encrypted data is only available to the registered licensee. Even if a school’s security were to be compromised and a backup of the database stolen, the encrypted data would still be unreadable, even by another school.