On Wednesday 30th November 2022 we welcomed Bishop Ralph, Fr Bede, SJF Governors, our friends from the PTFA, the Parish of Our Lady Lourdes and Gripple came together as a school community for the blessing of recently refurbished library, renamed in honour of Marie Kerley, a former teacher who left our school a generous legacy to be used to improve the building for the benefit of the children.
Mrs Kerley was always so passionate about reading and instilling in the children she taught an enthusiasm and passion for books. We therefore wanted to refurbish the library and then rename it in her honour so that it will stand as a lasting legacy both of her dedicated service to our community in its early days and to celebrate her generous gift to us, which is enabling us to improve our school environment and facilities.
Some of our Chaplains welcomed Bishop Ralph, Fr Bede and all our guests as part of the simple liturgy they led. Bishop Ralph and Fr Bede then made their to our library, accompanied by our other guests and a few of our School Councillors, SJF Eco Team members, Sports Majors and Healthy Minds Champions to bless the space before re-joining everyone in the hall for the final blessing.
We thank Bishop Ralph, Fr Bede for joining us in order to meet everyone and to bless our library. We would like to thank our fantastic PTFA for all their incredible work to transform library. We also thank the management and team from Gripple for all the time they gave up to design, decorate and make resources for the library, including the incredible 'tree-shelf' unit in the middle of the library. We thank the parishioners and other friends of the school who sewed seat covers. We thank the Governors who were able to join us; Mrs Barrett for organising the liturgy; our Chaplains and all the children who were magnificent.
Finally, we thank Mrs Drummond, one of our parents, and owner of 'Adele Drummond Photography' (click here), for taking and donating the beautiful pictures, to help us recall this special event, a selection of which are shared below.
