School Library

The Library at St Francis’ truly reflects the College’s commitment to providing a nurturing environment that supports academic excellence, personal development, and wellbeing for the whole College community. The Library aims to sustain a love of reading for the whole of our school community.

Through collaboration with subject departments across the College, the Library offers an excellent range of physical and online resources that extend and enrich the curriculum we teach. It also has information on career choices, applying to university, exam skills, newspapers and magazines, and materials in English and foreign languages.

The carefully curated collection of books and access to current online subject journals fosters a culture in which the students can independently read widely, research and study. There are desks and computers for students to use during their private-study periods and the Librarian is on hand to assist with any research enquiries.

Students in Years 7-9 have regular Library lessons as part of their English timetable where they have the freedom to select a fiction book of their choice from the collection and read for pleasure. The Library lessons are also an opportunity for the students to utilise the Librarian – who can offer a bespoke service recommending books based on the student’s personal interests or sharing knowledge of award-winning titles. The Library boasts a diverse range of fiction and non-fiction books where great emphasis is placed on creating a collection that represents inclusion and diversity. Other members of our community can enjoy the space before and after school and at break and lunchtimes.

The Library promotes reading for pleasure by providing many creative initiatives. A range of new titles is purchased termly – some of these are professionally considered and selected by the Librarian, others are recommended by staff and also the students. The opportunity for the students to build the collection is incredibly important and encourages them to value and invest emotionally in the space. Library Assistants and Book Club members enjoy creating eye-catching displays and making recommendations to their peers through posters and the LitLib Newsletter. The Librarian also organises a yearly book fair, a programme of visits from authors, poets, and illustrators and some of our students are lucky enough to be able to take part and participate in the North Hertfordshire Book Awards Event.

At St. Francis’ we want our students to have a life-long passion for reading and recognise that the benefits of this are felt across the whole curriculum. Research shows that those students who are keen readers perform consistently well across the whole spectrum of subjects taught on the curriculum.