Libraries are the heart and soul of reading for both pleasure and academia. Every school and every community needs one. This is why Wellington College is proud to support the Library Project, a China-based organisation determined to create wonderful libraries and reading spaces across the country’s more rural regions.   The end of last term saw our pupils in years 1-8 getting into some serious page-turning action for the College’s fourth read-a-thon event. As with previous years, they followed a simple setup of seeking out sponsorship from parents or family members, who would agree to donate either a predetermined amount or a ‘per minute’ commitment based on the individual pupil’s target. Needless to say, most pupils shot right past their target reading time, as they really got into the spirit of the event.   After a full week of exploring all manner of books – fiction and non-fiction, from high fantasy and crime thrillers to autobiographies and world histories – our librarian Pippa Jacobi found herself sorting through an astonishing 120,664 RMB of donations raised by our sponsored pupils. Through their combined efforts, they had managed the equivalent of six weeks of non-stop reading, securing a record-breaking level of sponsorship money in the process.   Star readers While everyone involved in the read-a-thon has contributed to making it the College’s most successful to date, there are a few special mentions to be made. Some pupils made it their mission to clock up a truly impressive number of minutes:

• Nathaniel (year 3) read for 780 minutes
• Oscar (year 4) read for 700 minutes
• Julia (year 5) read for 730 minutes
• Jade (year 5) read for 1004 minutes

  Each of these star readers received small prizes, including various age-appropriate books and other reading materials and accessories. In terms of outstanding classes, 1SS and 3EK really shone with their collective totals of reading time, while The Stanley was far and away the leading house, winning a set of encyclopaedias for the houseroom. All these pupils and groups received their prizes in the library as part of a small celebration held on the 10th of January. Joining us were two representatives of the Library Project, who came to Wellington to receive the cheque and show their sincere appreciation. They told us that this was one of the largest single donation amounts they had ever received!   Building a love of reading According to our friends at the Library Project, the money raised by pupils this year should be enough to fully outfit two libraries and may possibly stretch to funding a third. As with previous years, we will likely take a trip to Shaanxi province in April or May, circumstances permitting, to see the libraries being built thanks to the efforts of our pupils and the generosity of their parents and family members. We would like to say a massive thankyou to everyone who read and donated this year. Always remember that efforts like these allow for children to fall in love with reading and discover new worlds that might otherwise have been closed to them. No matter who we are, or where we come from, reading is a gateway to new greater understanding, enjoyment and opportunity.   We look forward to sharing details of the new libraries in the near future.