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!