Pershore High School
Library News
Kind donation of holocaust books
On Friday 11th July we were pleased to have a visit from Mr Garnett Alderson, who is committed to educating today's youth about the Holocaust in the hope that such a thing never happens again. Mr Alderson, who is a Christian Jew, was inspired to continue his quest by Lily Ebert, a Holocaust survivor, who was well known for her educational work.
Mr Alderson uses his pension to purchase books about the holocaust – survival stories, memoirs and fictionalised accounts inspired by true stories – reads them, then donates them to local schools. Pershore High School is the eighth school to have received a generous gift of these books.
The collection will be available to borrow from the school library.
World Book Day 2026
We have had lots of activities in the school library to celebrate World Book Day. There were book related quiz sheets and the materials to try blackout poetry available every day at break time.
On Thursday we had an action-packed day with two teams of year 7 and 8 pupils taking part in the annual Worcestershire Children’s Book Group Quiz online with other schools in Worcestershire. The pupils started reading the four books from the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Children’s Book Award shortlists before Christmas to answer questions on them and the authors during the closely fought quiz. The Book Busters were pipped to the top spot coming joint second and PBHM weren’t far behind.
We then went straight into an online author talk from Nathanael Lessore who discussed the importance of reading, some top tips for writing your own story and a Q&A session.
At lunch time a group took part in the Traitor’s Book Game (thank you to Gareth Evans from Abbeyfield School for the resources). Each pupil read a book synopsis then the group discussed which ones they thought were fake. At the end of the session each pupil voted for the person who they thought was the traitor.
During lunch time on Friday pupils watched Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ‘Behind the Magic,’ a digital event that was recorded at the Palace Theatre in London. The cast, creatives and backstage crew talked about their roles in the production and how reading was important to them, both within their working and home lives.
WBD week also saw the start of two book award reading groups with the Carnegie Medal for Writing shadowing group to start soon.
The Spark! Book Award readers will read, review and vote on the four shortlisted books between now and June. The pupils in the group will also be able to take part in author events and competitions. Congratulations to Lottie who won the PHS heat of the Spark! Poetry Competition. Lottie’s poem has now been entered into the National competition.
The Excelsior Award group will read, review and rate four graphic novel and manga books from the Blue short list which is tailored for KS3.
Although pupils have been selected by the English Department to take part in reading groups, if any other pupils want to get involved, go and see Ms Beck in the library for more information.
Don’t forget pupils can access Oliver, the library management system, from home and school. Oliver can be used to search for books, place reservations and submit reviews. There is also some useful information on the home screen linking to free resources, competitions and activities.