Caroline Theobald

At St Benet’s one of our special rooms and places to go to is Caroline’s Library, a library named and erected in memory of a past pupil, Caroline Theobald. Caroline was a beautiful girl who enjoyed her time at school immensely. She was bubbly, friendly, helpful and loved every minute of her time at St Benet’s. She was a buddy to one of our pupils, Jessica and would make sure that she and her friends were happy during their time at school.

Sadly when Caroline was in Year 6 at St Benet’s, she died very suddenly one night. This was a heart breaking time for her family and our community as we had suffered a great loss in such devastating circumstances. With our caring and supportive ethos, we were all there to support each other and Caroline’s family through such dark days.

Rainbows

A symbol which we cherish to represent Caroline is a rainbow. During this difficult loss, a poem was shared about rainbows which brought comfort to all at this time. Our Friends of St Benet’s and the wider community, along with support from Caroline’s family, planned and devised a special place, which we now call Caroline’s Library.

Caroline’s Library

With Caroline’s love of rainbows, our library was constructed with multicolours and a rainbow carpet. The rainbow begins as you enter Caroline’s Library and it ends in the corner, where you will find a beautifully constructed stained-glass window.

Such window has a star in the top right corner with ‘Caroline Friend Forever’ written inside it. At the bottom of the window are mini stars where each child who was in Caroline’s cohort, wrote a memory or a gift that Caroline shared. The stars’ inscriptions speak of the depth of love and remembrance that friends and family have for Caroline.

Our library is a sacred place; a place to remember Caroline and a place of worship where we hold weekly Mass and liturgies. It is a place of reflection and a place of peace.

Daily lessons including Read, Write, Inc sessions happen in Caroline’s library as well as class library time where we borrow and read books. It is situated at the heart of our school, in the centre, to show the importance that each and every child in our school holds for us and our community.

We remember our angel, Caroline on October 24th each year and every time we see a rainbow in the sky, above our school, we know that Caroline is smiling down on us.