The 2025 Chronicle

elling traffic and demand patterns, earned first place in the se nior age category. It was precisely the sort of success the Media Centre exists to support: intellectually strong, collaborative, tech nologically confident and directed towards a real-world problem. Across the middle and latter parts of the year, the library contin ued to find inventive ways of keeping reading visible and attrac tive. Before the holidays, boys were encouraged towards leisure reading through the Five Must-Reads for the Holidays initiative, while Study Break Bliss promoted reading as refreshment during exam pressure. June’s Spud Scavenger Challenge sent E Block boys around campus solving clues inspired by John van de Ruit’s novels before culminating in a lively Kahoot showdown. A Hogwarts digital escape room brought further mid-year energy, and the term-three “True Story… Bro!” Book Blast foregrounded non-fiction that celebrated courage, curiosity and real lives. By August, Friday Book Blasts had become a regular feature, using interactive Sway pages to showcase new arrivals and recommen dations in a format that felt current and accessible. In September and October the centre continued to show how naturally it now inhabits both the traditional and the contem porary. International Literacy Day, observed under the theme “Literacy for a Sustainable Future”, invited boys and staff to re cord short reflections on why reading still matters in a digital age, drawing the studio directly into the life of the library. Soon afterwards, the Postcards from the Journey competition invited boys to respond creatively to their outdoor adventure experienc es through writing, photography and short film, again bringing together reflection, storytelling and media production.

less visible but no less important. Mrs Ross’s displays, reading promotions, communications and event planning helped make the library feel animated and relevant, but she also undertook painstaking systems work behind the scenes. Her reclassifica tion of sections, improvement of borrower and inventory accu racy within Reading Cloud, and attention to returns processes have laid a stronger foundation for future stocktaking and re porting. The atmosphere of the library in 2025 was therefore not accidental. It rested on sustained, methodical effort as much as on creativity and flair. The print room and textbook operations were similarly marked by steadiness and care. Mrs Keren Shunmoogum oversaw an other highly efficient year in which textbook systems remained current, ISBN data supported accurate tracking, and periods of heavy print demand were handled with calm professionalism. Her process discipline, automation-minded approach and clear communication underpinned a service on which staff and boys rely daily, often under considerable time pressure. Together, the work of the library and print room teams ensured that the Media Centre was not only imaginative and future facing in its public profile, but dependable in the ordinary academic ser vices that sustain school life. By the end of 2025, the Media Centre had grown as both a li brary and an innovation venue, becoming a more integrated ac ademic space where boys could read quietly, prototype ideas, record interviews, solve problems, print essential resources, meet authors, enter competitions and see their own work tak en seriously. It supports the daily life of the school in practi cal ways, while also shaping how boys read, think, collaborate, make and imagine.

Much of the year’s success rested on careful work that was

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