permanent contributed

SOCIAL SERVICE REPORTThis year more than ten old age pensioners were visited by the Social Service Group, anddespite some early qualms about our ability to succeed in this field, we found it to be very rewarding; having done anything from digging gardens and painting, to listening to reminiscences andsinging songs round a piano .Once again some of the people we visited were persuaded to come to both the play and theconcert, and although there was not as large an attendance as in previous years, those who cameenjoyed the performances .In Chapel one evening Elizabeth Marter and Angela McAvoy answered questions put to themabout their work within the scheme in order to explain to the School what type of problems theymight meet in this work .As in some previous years there is to be a sponsored walk to Watton and back, which, it ishoped, will not cause too many blisters . The walk has been arranged in order to raise money foran outing for the old age pensioners and some of the patients from Hellesdon Hospital .On behalf of those who have been involved in the scheme this year, I would like to wish thefuture members of the group every success in a worthwhile and enjoyable activity .Caroline WaringTHE LIBRARYThis has been a year of re-thinking about the Library . How can it beused to maximum effect? How much priority in its use should the sixth formhave? Should they all necessarily spend their free periods there? How canit be used in the evenings or at week-ends? How can we adapt its resourcesto new patterns of learning throughout the School? These are intriguingquestions, and we cannot pretend to have found the answer to many ofthem yet, though this last term has seen some progress .tion, they borrow the idea of junior pupils borrowing books for long-term study, quite apart from those.The opening of the building for sixth form study on weekday eveningshas been a most worthwhile innovation . There have never been more thantwenty-three upper sixth formers there at any one time, so an air of spaciousand studious calm has prevailed, the kind of atmosphere one expects tofind in a Library, but is so rarely attained during the hurly-burly of the working day . Another innova-personally, has been taken up by several School departments with varying success . We are onlynow beginning to discover some of the snags . All personal borrowing by juniors is now done after4 p .m . by College pupils and during the lunch hour by the C .G .S ., and this too seems to have had abeneficial effectThe other change this year is of a quite different kind . Quietly and unobtrusively Miss McKayhas taken over the duties done for the last eight years by Mrs . Worrall, a period which has seen atremendous expansion in the size of the building and the number of books, and an even greaterincrease in the turnover of books through borrowing, largely due to the growth in the number ofday pupils in this time . The number of new books Mrs . Worrall has prepared for use mustbe over 2,000, the number she has repaired, patched, re-labelled and re-covered, so that in somecases their original appearance has been completely transformed, must be phenomenal . We heara lot these days of what it costs to maintain essential services . It is as well to stop and think fora moment of how much time and devoted effort Mrs . Worrall and her bands of helpers have put inover the years to maintain the essential service of our Library . Having a reasonable annual supplyof new books is one thing . Making sure that any new book is still serviceable after ten years of harduse is quite another . Those who assisted Mrs . Worrall were : Barbara Haines, Pauline Gibbs, SallyDavidson, Janet Southwood, Sharon Kidner, Margaret Banks, Jane Thrussell, Elizabeth Weddall,Alison Webb, Suzanna Poulson, Mandy Knight, Lesley Breeze, Karen Dubock, Helen Little,Eleanor Wickens, Penny Atkinson, Caroline Russell, Sally Lucas, Susan Balls, Jane Pratchett,Faye Woods, Caroline Crowe, Sarah Kirkman . R .J .G .