School Librarian retires after issuing 500,000 books over 30 years
School Librarian retires after issuing 500,000 books over 30 years
Today, we say a fond farewell to Avril Rogers who has retired from Spalding Academy after nearly 30 years as a School Librarian.
She has seen many improvements during this time since she first started as a Librarian at Gleed Girls School in July 1993. The school has undergone many changes when Gleed Girls School and Gleed Girls Technology College merged to become Sir John Gleed School and now known as Spalding Academy.
The job as a Librarian has also changed significantly over the years as computers replaced cards with date stamps and the internet enabled students to access unlimited resources. This is something that Avril has fully embraced as technology plays an integral part for our learners, which is evident with our fantastic ‘Accelerated Reader’ scheme that records the progress of students reading online.
Today, the modern and spacious library at Spalding Academy has thousands of books, which students have free access to borrow and read. The books available are aimed at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, so every student will find something to enjoy, especially when this includes sport, suspense, wellbeing, diversity, graphic novels as well as classics and young adult favourites. Over the 30 years, Avril will have stamped and zapped over 500,000 books!
Students have always been at the heart of the job for Avril as she runs a popular after school Homework Club every day in the Library and introduced the Reading Ambassador scheme where volunteers from Year 10 support lower school children with their reading.
Over the years, Avril has been supported by some amazing Junior Librarians. She would personally like to thank Megan Beeston, Jayden Boyd, Mason Hatfield, Millie Lawrence and Winnie Temple and from Year 11 and Rosalka Chauhan in Year 9 as well as all the former Junior Librarians for their support in helping run the library.
Mrs Jemma Curson, Head of School at Spalding Academy said “I would to thank Mrs Rogers for her hard work and dedication to all our students. Mrs Rogers always has a smile on her face, ready to support our students with choosing their books or supporting their literacy. Mrs Rogers has dedicated her working life and career to our school and students. And for this, we will be forever grateful for her service. We will miss you!”
In her retirement, Avril will keep herself busy as she plans to spend quality time with her five grandchildren, take advantage of being able to go away travelling during term time and indulge in her passion of water colour painting.
As well as missing the students, she will miss zapping all those books!