Monthly Archives: December 2014

Giamuncous

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If you Google (other search engines are available!) the word Giamuncous the only entries are for St.Ninian’s High school library. And, why might that be I may hear you say? It’s because I made it up. Why would you need to make up a word when there are some prefectly good ones out there – like aardvark or serendipity? Beacuse, dear readers there was no word big enough, brash enough and bold enough to match the amazing, wonder that is the ANNUAL GUAMUNCOUS S1 QUIZ.

if you are currently in S1 get your thinking caps ready for Wednesday the 17th December for that day shall be known as Giamuncous Quiz day.
Where class is pitted against class and teacher agaist teacher to grab the cown of knowledge.
run to the libray and get your questions run back to class and work out the answers ( no Googling its for wimps and will waste your time) run back to the library and repeat a few times more till, exausted with the sweat of knowledge and a heart rate faster than any Mr Fuchs can get you to for the bleep test, you collapse in your classroom to await the e-mail.
Will it say well done or will it say better luck next year.. except this quiz is for S1 only and there is no next year!

As Gore Vidal once said – It is not enough to win, others must fail!

Good luck and enjoy!

Unfestive read-a-long

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Thanks to the lovely people at the Scottish Book Trust we have been set an unfestive challenge. To read a book over the holidays and have a right good chinwag about it when we get back from the break.

Out of a selection of books on offer I chose the most unfestive book I could find – the non Christmassy, no tinsel or baubles in sight – Zom-B by the brilliant Darren Shan.

SBT have given, yes given, us 20 copies of this title with only one request – that we read and chat (I know that is two requests but reading without talking about a great book is impossible, right? – so it really is only one request) all things Zom-B in the New Year.

Pupils are signing up fast to take part ! So, if you are in S3+ and you want to get your paws on a lovely new book and take part in some interesting book chat – pop in to the library as soon as possible. But warning as the title suggests this is not for the squeamish, so if you are a sensitive flower best not to go for this read and look out for other suggestions and perhaps another read-a-long.

Even if I run out of books why not get your own or borrow one from the school or local library and come along to the talk? Or have your own talk? Or just talk to me or just talk to yourself?

Here are some things to think about before you start the book

Did you know there have been more than 50 blockbuster movies made about zombies?

The first ever zombie movie was made back in 1932 and called White Zombie and starred the early horror actor Bela Lugosi in the lead role (he also played
Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, Ygor and many more creepy characters)

In times of economic recession the number of zombie books increases.

There is a term called the “Zombie economy” where businesses do not thrive or collapse they simply stagnate.

The BBC2 series “In the Flesh” referred to zombies as having ” partially deceased syndrome”.

Often zombies are used in fiction and movies as metaphors for other evils in society.

One author went so far as to say that Vampires are the rich upper class and zombies the working class!

The very first novel to include the term zombi was the 1929 novel The Magic Island by William Seabrook.

Follow me on twitter @stninianslib for some twitchat about the book starting on the 19th December over the hols.

Going for the Double – This time a Green Guinness world record

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On Christmas morning will you open your 4th copy of the New Diary of a Wimpy Kid? or the 3rd version of some Home Baking show recipe book? Do not despair! The Cli-fi group is at hand to help solve your woes.

Keep a hold of any unwanted ( but good condition) books, both fiction and non fiction and bring them in to school for our “extra special” green GWR day.

On Friday 5th Feb at lunchtime we will be hosting as big a book swap as we possibly can in aid of –

1/ saving the world, and
2/ get ANOTHER Guinness world record

Did you know that on average it take 1Kge of carbon to produce a book.

If you swap your book for another you will help save the environment 2Kge and get yourself a brilliant new something to read and be apart of a Guinness world record attempt – how cool is that?

So bring along as many books as you would like to swap and take part in a fantastic swaptastic guinnesstastic event!

Paired Reading meets Santa

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Over the past few months St.Ninian’s paired reading scheme has been going from strength to strength. Over 40 pupils were selected from S1 to need some additional support with their reading and our amazing S6 pupils stepped up to support them.

With some extra training and moral support from me the S6 pupils were matched with a buddy each and every Tuesday without fail they have met and rad and discussed their books. I am very impressed with the committment of our seniors when so many demands are made on their time that they have continued with this programme and have made great efforts to support their reading buddy.
Staff and students from both S1 and S6 have commented on the success of the scheme.

I wanted to celebrate this success and spoke with the HT about securing some funds to purchase books for the scheme. It might sound odd that a librarian is keen to have pupils with their own books rather than borrowing them from the library but many studies ahve shown that immersion in a book rich environment works wonders with readers especially those who lack the confidence of some of their classmates.
Thanks to the generosity of Mr Docherty and to the canny nature of my buying prowess I was able to purchase 2 books per pupil.
Knowing my fantastic skill with the ribbon and glitter I hosted a merry little afternoon where the S6 pupils were invited to come in , listen to Christmas tunes,have a sweetie, pick two books from the selection that would suite their buddy ( hand picked book ARE THE BEST!) and most importantly wrap them themselves. The S6 pupils then personalised a Christmas card and the scene was set.

S1 pupils were invited to the forum as a group to, what they thought, was a wee chat about the scheme. Little did they know the S6 buddies were there to surprise them with their presents. To say that this was one of my highlights of 20 years of working at St.Ninian’s as librarian was an understatement; staff students young and younger were all moved by the event as the pictures show.

All I have to think about now is – how do we top it for next year.

This event shows just how committed St.Ninian’s is to reading and to it’s pupils – long may it continue!

The tree is up

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biggest everreading the red nose way

If you are in need of a festive fix then pop in to the library we are all baubled up.
Thanks to Holly (festive and creative) and Dominic who nurtured our annual hardback Christmas tree from tiny paperback acorns.
Little Dolph is back on top reading his own tiny book.

While you are in admiring the tree why not borrow something to read over the hols and watch your parent’s faint? 😉
(remember reading burns up calories so it might just be the perfect excuse for cracking open another selection box – as if an excuse was ever needed!)

Scottish Book Week 2014

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What a great success our Book Week has been!
Our book sale raised over £150 for the school library and enabled lots of pupils to grab a book bargain – £2 a book – madness.

Lots of pupils put their origami skills to the test and made their very own tartan book tammy – a big thanks to Ms McGrory and Ms Beaton for helping with the making and the showing and the doing.
Here is a pic of Aoife with hers actually working!

We had a huge response from pupils and a smaller ( wimps!) response from staff to out Scot or Not competition – congratulations to Rhona and Mariam in S2 who jointly answered the most questions correctly and won 3 books each from the book sale.
And super well done to Mr Blair in the Technical dept. who beat all the rest of the staff and managed to munch away with a tunnock of prizes!

It was also the turn of the library to have a surprise in the form of love letters from S1 – thanks to all who took the time to show the amour for a special place!

No one was able to correctly identify where Hamish was on his holidays – Eilean Donan for those who were wondering so I get the keep a copy of the brand new Wimpy Kid for myself -or maybe I will start up another competition in the new year.

I hope everyone who got involved this year had a great time and who know what we will be able to get up to next year.
Start planning!

Holocaust Memorial Day

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27 January is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

On HMD we can honour the survivors of these regimes of hatred and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today.
HMD is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and to recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own, it’s a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented. We’re fortunate here in the UK; we are not at risk of genocide. However, discrimination has not ended, nor has the use of the language of hatred or exclusion. There is still much to do to create a safer future and HMD is an opportunity to start this process.

Theme: Keep the Memory Alive

Rules:
Pupils must be in S1- S3 at St.Ninian’s High School

All work must be original. Any examples of plagiarised work will result in automatic exclusion from the competition.

Characters must be fictional and based loosely on real events. The tone of the work must be sympathetic to the sensitive nature of the topic. The piece must also be, where applicable, historically accurate.

The work for this year should be in the format of a letter.
This can be to a newspaper to a friend, to a loved one or from a witness.
Letters can be formal or informal or even postcards. Maximum length 800 words

The closing date for all entries is 4pm Friday 12th Dec 2014 and the winners will be announced on Monday 5th January 2015.

All entries must be in an electronic format and created in word or publisher.

Entries should be sent to bairdd@st-ninians.e-renfrew.sch.uk

One entry per pupil.

Inspiration can be taken from www.hmd.org.uk/

The judges decision is final.