This week we celebrated SP Book Week, which aims to foster a lifelong passion for reading by engaging students with books and authors, encouraging them to explore new worlds and ideas from other people's perspectives.

A number of activities were organised by the Library Committee, including a Staff Favourite Book Competition. On display in the Library window were 24 book covers, and the students had to match the staff member up with their favourite book. Students raced around the school asking staff for 'clues', and the winner will be announced in assembly and receive a great prize.

We also created special SP Bookmarks, designed by Year 11 student Miguel Ragat, to distribute during Library classes to commemorate our 75th anniversary. Well done Zejm Holo, Patrick Calvert (Year 9), Kyte Hallas, and Miguel Ragat (Year 11) for your service to the SP Library, laminating and cutting out over 400 bookmarks.

We had two guest authors talking to us in the Library during Book Week. 

On Monday Ms Anne Kayes, Auckland writer of young adult fiction, discussed her book, In Our Own BackYard, about the experiences of a 15-year-old girl during the 1981 Springbok Tour. The students thoroughly enjoyed her talk about this difficult time when racial tensions were high, and to hear Ms Kayes read. We have two copies in the library of this fascinating novel.

On Wednesday we were pleased to host Mr Vitale Lafaele, visiting author of A Canoe Before the Wind, an extraordinary immigrant son's story, published in 2023. Mr Lafaele talked about the hardship he and his family experienced in Grey Lynn in the 1970s during the Dawn Raids. He was appointed Area Commander Counties Manukau South and was the first Samoan to gain such high leadership in the NZ Police force. 

Three competitions were held in the Library during Second Break, with fierce rivalry between participants and great prizes for the winners. 

On Tuesday, Christian Fa'aui (Year 10) presented a Cook Islands Kahoot for Cook Island Language Week. Congratulations to Augustine McClutchie (Year 10) for winning the Kahoot.

Mita Tate (Year 11) ran a Kahoot on Thursday on Maori mythology and famous authors, which proved a big hit. Congratulations to the winners, the fine young men from Year 10, namely Antonio Collins, Tuakore Talauta-Riki and Jai Armstrong. 

On Friday, Douglas Clavert (Year 11) created a Library Quiz out of all the activities we've covered during library classes including idioms, acronyms, Pasifika geography, NZ provinces and collective nouns. The winner of this hilarious quiz was Monty Lafaele-Taka from Year 11. 

A very special thanks goes to our three Head Librarians namely Kainen Fuimaono, Matthew Blanch and Neil Fernandes, (Year 12) who introduced the Book Week activities on Monday in assembly, and oversaw all the events throughout the week. 

We hope your son enjoyed 2025 Book Week, and will continue to visit the school Library regularly.

We finish Book Week with a Cook Islands quotation, provided by Christian Fa'aui from Year 10. 

"E tae rava te marama, me tae ua atu te ako" - "Wisdom only comes when learning is pursued."