Welcome back to a new school year! We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new Year 7 and Year 12 students and wish everyone a successful year ahead.
If you’re new to the library, we encourage you to come and explore our book collection. We also have a Suggestions Book where you can recommend titles you’d like to see on our shelves.
Ready to start reading? You’ll find links to Libresoft and Sora on the library homepage under Useful Links; for more information read below. Don’t forget to submit reviews on Libresoft for any books you borrowed over the summer and earn achievement points.
Patrice Lawrence is crowned Children’s Laureate 2026 – 2028
Award winning Author Patrice Lawrence has recently been announced as the 14th Children’s Laureate at a ceremony in the Barbican, London. She has succeeded Frank Cottrell-Boyce who held the biannual title from 2024 to 2026.
Lawrence is celebrated for her success in writing Young Adult and Children’s books. Orangeboy, her debut novel, won the Waterstones Prize for Older Children’s Fiction in 2017. Her subsequent books been frequent visitors to prize lists appearing on the Jhalak Children’s and Young Adult Prize, the YA Book Prize and the Costa Children’s Book Award to name but a few. Notably, Lawrence’s novels have been nominated for The Carnegies Medal six times, with Needle shortlisted in 2023 for writing. Both her books Needle and Rat are published as dyslexia-friendly texts by Barrington Stoke and are available in our school library to read.
Patrice Lawrence’s novels often feature themes effecting young people today particularly vulnerable children, sparking empathy, conversation and awareness. In 2021 Patrice was awarded an MBE for services to literature in the Queen’s birthday honours.
Over the next two years, during her time as Children’s Laureate, she aims to champion the power of books and storylines to bring people together and build stronger connections in communities.
To find out more about Patrice Lawrence visit:
https://www.readingzone.com/authors/patrice-lawrence/
Remember to keep safe online. Always ask your parent/guardian or a member of staff if you are unsure.
Join in the fun with KS3 Book Club
Our KS3 Book Club has kicked off with an exciting introduction to some great books for our students to read. Among the reading picks for Year 7 is Jimmy Coates by Joe Craig, and Wizards Once by Cressida Cowell. Suggestions for Year 8 include Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and for Year 9, I am Four by Pittacus Lore and Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
If you enjoy reading and chatting about books, come along to KS3 Book Club in the school library, fortnightly on Thursday week B. You could pick up your next book adventure, share your book recommendations and make new friends. Our next meeting will be on Thursday 1st October 2026 from 1pm – 1.20pm.
Logging onto Libresoft
Start your school year with getting to know all about the books we have in our school library and discover our ebook service on Sora. Libresoft is our school library catalogue system. You can view all the books we have available for borrowing and read reviews other students have written about them. Libresoft allows you to reserve books and do book reviews, simply sign in using your school Microsoft single sign on (SSO) account to get started. All the links you need are above click “useful links” dropdown menu. Remember for every book review you do, you will get an achievement point.
In addition, if you are looking for book recommendations for your year group, we have a great list of recommended reads on Libresoft.
Logging onto Sora
Sora is our free school ebook service for all students. Sora has a huge range of ebooks, audio books, magazines, comics and more for you to browse and borrow. Like with our school library service, Sora lets you borrow books for two weeks, you can renew them easily by clicking the book you are reading and pressing ‘renew.’ When you download an ebook to borrow, you can adjust the settings in Sora to suit your needs, for example: Dyslexia-friendly fonts.
Download the Sora app today or click the link above under ‘Useful Links.’ Sign in using your school SSO and get started. The school librarians are always around if you need help, or if you are experiencing problems with both Libresoft and Sora, please do come in and tell us.
Remember to keep safe online. Always ask your parent/guardian or a member of staff if you are unsure.
SGS Sora challenge winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Year 7 Reading Challenge, which students completed over the summer holidays before starting in Year 8.
1st Aneesh 8T – 20654 minutes read
2nd Uditabh 8W – 19404 minutes read
3rd Vidu 8W – 19019 minutes read
Among the books they read on Sora were Daughter of Sparta by Claire Andrews, The Hero & the Crown by Robin McKindley, Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Fifty-eight students joined up read on Sora and it was great to see how many minutes they managed to read during the 6-week break. Well done to all who took part and gained their first achievement points of the school year by entering the challenge.
You can run your own Reading Challenge on Sora with other SGS classmates by pressing the Me icon on your Sora account and scrolling down to get started.
The SGS Year 7 Sora Summer Reading Challenge
by Aaryan 8M
The SGS Year 7 Sora Summer Reading Challenge was a summer book competition held by the school to engage students to read books over the summer, whilst keeping the fun by making it competitive. I thought it was very fun as you climbed the ranks and went against other students to see who could read the longest. The Sora app has been great to use and allows you to read basically any book and if the book isn’t available, you can hold it and read it within a week. Fiction books and scary books like, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, are great to read for the upcoming Halloween.
Calling Year 9 Blog Buddies
If you are in Year 9 or above and would like to become one of our regular blog buggies to write for our school library blog, then look no further, this is the role for you! It is a great opportunity to practice and perfect your blogging skills for our school audience. You will be given a list of book topics to choose from which could be anything from climate change, mental health awareness, black history or a book series you have read and would like to share your thoughts on. All guidance is given and in return you will receive achievement points for every blog you write, plus you will become a published author on our school website!
For more information or to sign up, please come into our school library and speak to Mrs. Payne, or email: library@suttongrammar.school
National Poetry Day
1 October 2026
Do you love poetry? Have you explored the poetry collections or verse novels available in our school library? If you already enjoy poetry, or would like to discover more, National Poetry Day is the perfect opportunity to dive in. Visit the school library or your local library, where the librarians have plenty of great recommendations to get you started.
This year’s National Poetry Day theme is Wonder, celebrating the magic, curiosity and joy that poetry can bring. Whether you enjoy reading, writing, listening to or performing poetry, it’s a chance to revisit old favourites and discover something new.
World Mental Health Day
10 October 2026
World Mental Heath Day happens annually on 10th October. This year’s theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is: Lived experiences heard: Real voices, real change. This important message reminds us to practice good mental health .
The National Literacy Trust is encouraging everyone to discover the benefits of reading, showing how a good book can support positive mental health and wellbeing. Check out some of great books on mental health: Blame My Brain: the Amazing Teenage Brain Revealed by Nicola Morgan (153); Mind Your Head by Juno Dawson (616); How to Grow up and feel Amazing by Dr Ranj (612). Check out more titles on Sora.
On Thursday 8 October, the National Literacy Trust and the British Council have created the “Take 10 to Read” event which will aim to set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the most people reading online in 12 hours. We are inviting Year 7 to attend this event at 2pm in our school library. There will be an online talk from Frank Cottrell-Boyce to kick things off followed by reading for ten minutes to help the NLT attempt a world record. We will have a maximum of 25 students, so if you would like to attend, please come to the library asap to sign up.”
Remember: If you feel worried or anxious about something, speak to your Form Tutor, Head of Year, our student Support Officers: Ms Lapsley and Mrs Webb or any member of staff in school. They are there to try to help support you.
Remember to keep safe online. Always ask your parent/guardian or a member of staff if you are unsure.
KS3 Bookmark Competition
The school library is launching a Design a Bookmark Competition and we’d love to see your artistic talents. Create an original bookmark inspired by reading, books, libraries, or your favourite stories. The winning design will be printed for and distributed to SGS library users. Get your pencils, pens, and imaginations ready, and design a bookmark that will inspire others to pick up a book!
Great library prizes available for our winners and achievement points for every entry. Please remember to put your name and form on the back of your bookmark and bring it to the school library by 6th November 2026.
