The Library is open to everyone at break and before and after school for homework and revision.
At lunchtime the library is open to specific year groups:
Monday and Tuesday - Year 7
Wednesday - Year 8
Thursday - Years 8 and 9
Friday - KS4
The Library is situated on the first floor of the Maths/Science/English block.
These are some of our Ambassadors who range from Year 7, 8 and 9. At the moment, we have around 15 Ambassadors who were picked due to their high interest in the school library and their love of reading.
Their roles include:
Written by Tyler B on Year 8 Work Experience in the Library.
St Helens is buzzing with local libraries and has some fantastic resources and fun events on throughout the year.
From BorrowBox to magazines from RB Digital to Cultural Hubs to Shelf Help, find out more about what you can gain access to all for FREE by following them on Twitter and Instagram.
Grab a temporary library card here. The library card number can then be used to register for our online services, including online eBooks and Audiobooks and online magazines and comics.
Click here to take a look at the St Helens Library Services Catalogue of all their books on offer.
Click here to access Accelerated Reader and get reading and quizzing on a range of books!
July's Books of the Month were chosen by one of Year 9 Library Ambassadors, Ella T. These are all books which Ella has read during lockdown and says she would recommend to anybody! Each book is related to mental health.
Click here to see all of Ella's book recommendations for July and what inspired her.
June's Books of the Month's theme is 'Young Voices'. Each book tells individual, very different but massively important stories through fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Click here to see all the 'Young Voices' books for the month of June.
For May's Books of the Month the theme linked to VE Day which will be celebrated on May's Early Bank Holiday 8th May.
Click here to see all the books of May relating to commemorate the 75th VE Day.
The theme around the Books of the Month for April were linked to 'New Life' and were all books that were guaranteed to change someone's life after reading them.
Click here to see all of April's Books of the Month.
The theme around the Books of the Month for March was in relation to World Book Day on 5th March. All the books were from around the world and created by different authors from around the world.
Click here to see all of March's Books of the Month.
February's Books of the Month were all linked to Love and Relationships with important messages us to think about all the time, not just for the month. #BeKind.
Click here to see all of the Books of the Month.
January's Books of the Month were all linked to Holocaust Memorial Day
on 27th January.
Click here to see all of them.
Our books for December were chosen by Ella C whilst on Work Experience in The Library.
Click here to see all the other Books of the Month for December.
November's Books of the Month were all in celebration of Remembrance Day and 100 years since we first started marking the occassion.
Click here to see all of November's Books of the Month.
October's books were the first ones in the series to start us off on our monthly adventures!
Click here to see all of October's Books of the Month.
20th January 2020
Our Library Ambassadors after their trip to Parr Library.
This was our first visit to Parr Library with our Library Ambassadors as part of the annual Book Awards St Helens (BASH) scheme through the St Helens Library Service in the 11+ category.
The group enjoyed a range of icebreakers and games with one of the local librarians as a main group and in pairs, where they also discussed the five shortlisted BASH books in detail, using their critiquing and debating skills.
The five books are from a range of genres and authors which is a fantastic way for the students to discover new books and engage in books where they usually wouldn't do.
The shortlisted books include; Girl in the Window by Penny Joelson, Jelly by Jo Cotterill, The Boy Who Lied by Kim Slater, The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson and The Storm Keeper's Island by Catherine Doyle.
The students will continue to take part in a number of workshops at the local library over the next couple of months, where they will pick the ultimate winner of the BASH books in their category.
1st - 20th December
As part of a countdown to Christmas, here at the library we decided to launch an Advent Calendar full of books! We asked Heads and Assistant Heads of Years to choose a student a day, who they believed to be most deserving to see what book was behind each door.
The winning students could then decide if they wanted to keep it for themselves to read or 'give the gift of a book' to someone they knew.
November 2019
Every year, throughout their year in Year 8, students take part in Work Experience around the school in one chosen area. This year was the first time that the Library has taken part in and we had some fantastic students to help us out, who worked very hard and really enjoyed their time.
Tylor said: "I had a great time in the library for the day and found out a lot of information about libraries that I never even knew they had to do. I wanted to spend more time in there that it has made me even start going to 'Book Club' sometimes."
Leland said: "I found working in the library interesting and enjoyed organising the books and writing book reviews for other students to enjoy. I'm feel proud when I see my review on display in there."
Ella said: "I really loved my day in the library; it was so much fun learning to use the different systems of logging the books in and out. I'd do my day all over again!"
We celebrated Libraries Week 2019 with lots of activities and events at St Cuthbert's Library with this year's theme of celebrating the role libraries in a digital world. We joined the rest of the nation by showing what our much-loved library along with the innovative and diverse services and activities that we have on offer here at St Cuthbert's.
Take a look at what we did throughout the special week.
On 10th October we celebrated World Mental Health Day with some Spoken Word Poetry. Each of our finalists spoke their truth about living in the digital age and what the 'Truth' means to them.
Our four finalists; Erin, Ella, Conor and Charlotte.
Earlier this month, the whole school took part in 'Make Your Mark'. It gives young people aged 11-18 across the UK the opportunity to get involved and have their voices heard, by helping to decide what Members of the UK Youth Parliament should debate and vote on.
During Library Week, our School Council from Years 8, 9 and 10 helped to count up the total number of votes on issues for the UK and devolved issues as well as local ones.
Some of the main issues were mental health, protecting the environment, welcoming refugees, tackling hate crime and child poverty as well as knife crime.
It was important for us, as a school, to take take part to show that voting is still so important in this digital world we now live in.
Thursday 3rd October marked the 25th Anniversary of National Poetry Day and this year’s theme was ‘Truth’.
We encouraged students to get involved themselves by sharing poems that spoke a truth to them, either ones they had written themselves or ones they like via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.
We then ran a competition for the ‘Best Poem’ and narrowed it down to four finalists who battled it out with some spoken word poetry on World Mental Health Day to speak their truth. Our Winner, Ella was decided by Mrs Twist, Miss Grimes and Miss Magee and won a copy of this year’s anthology of ‘Tell Me the Truth About Life’.
Our winner of our Poetry Competition, Ella with her prize, this year's anthology 'Tell Me The Truth About Life'.
Adem, our very own multi-millionaire, Accelerated Reader Champion with Miss Magee and Mrs Twist at the grand opening of the library.
Follow more about our events @stcuthbertslibrary.
BASH (Book Awards St Helens) is the annual book award scheme run by St Helens Library Service, where children and young people are encouraged to read the latest, modern and enticing fiction, written specially for them.
Some of our students have been invited to special events in January to discuss their favourite books so far. This scheme is a fantastic opportunity for them to meet their favourite authors and continue to help them develop their love of reading.
Through the series of local library based workshops they will develop their debating skills and critique the range of BASH books, which will lead them to vote for their favourite book and choose a winner.
Each year there is a special BASH celebration event at a local library in March, when the winning title is announced by a prominent children's author.
