Monthly Archives: October 2015

My oh my it’s Alex Nye

After 6 years in the making Alex’s new book Dark Matter will be hitting the shelves in a matter(sic) of days and guess which school she has agreed to come and talk to? No really I wish you would tell us because she said she was too busy – oh wait only joking it’s us – Alex will be coming along as part of our Book Week Scotland celebrations.
She has kindly offered to talk to a specially selected group of S1 pupils about her writing and characters and then we have encouraged her* to stay on to partake of a “literary lunch” with library assistants from both St. Ninian’s and Woodfarm High School.

It promises to be a corker of a day and Alex has promised to sign books for pupils – so if you have your own copy bring it along or if you want to buy a copy come and see me by Friday 13th Nov.

Just a heads up – for such a nice soft spoken lady she sure knows how to ramp up the heeby jeebies in her books!!

There’s lots going on this week so if you are not part of this event you are sure to be able to join in another.
The lovely Alex

*lured with cake

Book Week Scotland 2015

Book week scotland

Are you clearing out in time for Christmas and have any unwanted books at home?
As part of Book Week Scotland and our S2 Everest project we would like to run a second-hand book stall at the end of November.
If you would like to donate any items to this project they would be gratefully received.
Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to hand in as pupils can come along and buy a book for only 50p- all proceeds will go towards Oxfam’s Nepalese Earthquake Relief fund.
Updates will be tweeted from @stninianslib

Many thanks for your continued support of the library!

We are Readers

Massive congratulations to the amazing 45 S2 pupils who completed their summer reading bingo challenge.
Every single one read 8 books over the summer – how many did you manage? – even I could only squeeze in 7 ( I have an excuse I don’t get the summer hols).
All were invited to a celebration of their achievements in the lecture theatre.
Thanks to Mrs Lafferty; Head of English and Ms Cox Head of Support for Learning for coming along and echoing how proud we all are of these young people.

Special congratulations go to our overall winners pictured below.

I hope you enjoy the certificates, sweeties and the special limited edition bookmark featuring the school ( woo and hoo) and most of all I hope you continue with your reading – it’s life changing, I know!

Hopefully we will be able to run the scheme next summer and include both S1 and S2!

Amazing readers

IMG_1791

IMG_1789

IMG_1792

IMG_1794

IMG_1795

IMG_1796

IMG_1797

Summit to talk about

On Tuesday we were so lucky to have a visit from the one and only Matt Dickinson; one of only c4000 people in the world to have reached the top of Mount Everest!

Chilly much?

Chilly much?

Matt began by telling us about his career as a documentary maker and showed us some hair raising pictures of the places he has been…even on top of a moving ice-flow.
He talked at length about the risks and rewards of the climb including the time when his tent was ransacked by squatters (ON EVEREST!)how he nearly lost a couple of fingers due to a helpful Sherpa and how his 300 bar supply of toffee crisps began to explode at high altitude!
There was just enough time for some brilliant questions ranging from “Did you ever think you would not make it back?” ( yes!), “To what local food did you like?” ( Yak burgers!) and “Have you ever killed and eaten an ox?” (Great question, No!)
We were joined in the talk by a group of pupils from Woodfarm High who are also studying The Everest Files and were equally enthralled.

Betty the yeti was so excited

Betty the yeti was so excited


Massive thanks to Matt for coming along and making his adventures real, answering our questions and perhaps inspiring us to go that wee bit further; including our Alpine club who were lucky enough to get a picture with matt and some sneaky Yetis!