Forest gate community school 8

Learning Resource Centre

At the moment that we persuade a child, any child to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better.Barack Obama

At Forest Gate Community School our Learning Resource Centre provides a flexible place for learning where project work, individual study and group research can all take place.

The LRC provides a supportive and stimulating environment necessary to support a lively enquiring mind, giving access to a wide range of books, ICT and other resources. The LRC motivates students and stimulates learning and creativity, providing young people with the means to freely pursue subjects, which fully engage them while promoting wider reading. The Library is well stocked with resources that support the curriculum.

Staff work to underpin the school's philosophy of instilling a life-long love of learning by providing a comprehensive collection of educational and recreational multimedia materials to support the learning needs of all students. We also encourage growth in knowledge through their use. There is a wealth of resources for students seeking to fulfil their potential through study and research.

Reading is at the heart of FGCS, and as such, the LRC is the heart of the school. Throughout the year, we work hard to create and foster a love of reading for pleasure through many activities, like World Book Day, author events and other events such as Black History Month. Students are very privileged to have regular visits from authors throughout the year. Dan Freedman, Echo Freer, Neil Zetter and Monique Roffey are amongst our favourites.

Opening Times

8.00am – 4.30pm, Monday to Thursday
8.00am – 1.30pm, Friday

Library Interventions & Clubs

Handwriting Club

Handwriting is an essential part of learning. Handwriting helps with memory, expression and supports fine motor skills.

Students in year 7, who are nominated by their teachers, will work through an after school program to improve body preparedness and handwriting acquisition including spacing, letter formation and overall readability.

Reading Buddies

Reading Buddies is a literacy intervention which targets year 7s who would benefit from extra reading support. In this intervention, year 7 students, who have been nominated by their English teachers, are paired with volunteer KS4 students. This model allowed for peer modelling, one-on-one support, and building confidence as the year 7s practise their reading fluency, analysis skills and answering of comprehension as well as inference questions.

The members of this club are currently reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

Newspaper Club

This year, Forest Gate Community has their first Newspaper Club!

This club is completely student led as 4 year 10 students — who fill the roles of Editor - in - Chief, Co - Editor - in - Chief, Design Director and Production Manager — make all the calls in designing the student newspaper.

Students in years 8-10 have been trained as photographers, reporters, journalists, and editors to produce their own pieces, which are fully overseen and collaboratively worked on alongside our year 10 team. This club is open to new members.

Click on the link below to read the first editions of the Forest Gate Community School Student Newspaper.

Student-Newspaper-December-2023-2.pdf

Bibliophiles Book Club

In correlation with our strong reading culture, our Bibliophiles Book Club meets once a week to discuss and dissect a variety of texts. The Bibliophiles are a group of year 7 & 8 students who share book recommendations, develop ideas, compare and contrast texts and ultimately establish an environment where students can learn amongst their peers outside of the classroom.

This club transitions to participate in the Carnegie Yoto awards during the summer term.

Currently, the members of this club are reading Frankenstein in both graphic novel and play formats.

This club is open to new members.

Library Management System

Click the link below to access the Library Management System.

Eclipse website

Winter Reading List

KS3-Winter-Reading-List-2023.pdfKS4-Winter-Reading-List-2023.pdf