Learning Resource Service

Last year we were contacted by Mrs Firth from Nethermains Primary School in Denny to give advice on book-banding their reading schemes. A MS Teams meeting and one visit to the school later and the school had signed-up for the Scottish Book Trust’s Reading Schools programme and wanted to create… Read more

Staff and pupils in Falkirk Council have had automatic access to 1000s of eBooks and eAudiobooks through their Glow account since 2018. We provide this service for every school for free and as pupils/staff already have a Glow log-in there are no barriers to joining the library, just download the… Read more

The Exploding Life of Scarlett Fife by Maz Evans is a fabulously funny story about a girl who has BIG FEELINGS which get her into trouble. Find out what our #FalkirkReadingTeachers think – Warning! These reviews contain spoilers. Ages 7-9           Review 1 – 4/5 stars… Read more

Welcome to the Zetland Park Fountain Tales: Creative Writing Resource Inside the Teacher’s Guide below and the supporting series of 12 creative writing tip videos you will find all the information that you need to deliver engaging literacy lessons that explore the mystery of the missing statue from the top… Read more

    The UK’s longest running and best-loved book awards for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards, have announced the longlists for 2022. 33 books have been selected in total – 18 for the Yoto Carnegie Medal and 15 for the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal – with… Read more

The new furniture has arrived and we created a story corner and senior comfy reading area for pupils to relax and enjoy their new books. Pupil Voice is central to Sacred Heart’s ethos and we consulted with pupils on how they would like their library to look. They asked for… Read more

Apply now for Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature programme, a wonderful opportunity to invite an author to your school for £75 instead of £175. Scottish Book Trust will pay the rest of the fees and travel costs. The current application window covers Live Literature events taking place before 31 March… Read more

Welcome to the Falkirk Canals Classroom, an activity pack for primary school students that celebrates the fascinating history of the Union and Forth & Clyde canals in the Falkirk area. Below, you will find everything you need to deliver lessons on the canals, with hands-on activities to do on the… Read more

Previous winners and shortlists: RED 15 (2020-2021 award): Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin Illegal Nominated: Summer Bird Blue, Akemi Dawn Bowman A Pocketful of Stars, Aisha Bushby My Name’s Not Friday, Jon Walter RED 14 (2019-2020 award): Lauren James The Quiet at the End of the World Nominated: Orphan Monster… Read more

One of our main roles in supporting our primary schools is to help them develop and refurbish their school libraries. We tailor our support according to the needs of each school and the remit they provide. It can range from advice, purchasing new books, reorganisation, library cataloguing systems and full… Read more

Our Early Years Book Group has been looking at new picture books that can be used for STEM. Picture books are fantastic for stimulating learning and many are wonderful for a STEM Through Stories focus. The Falkirk STEM Officers support us by providing story planners for each book to give… Read more

We have been working with the Falkirk STEM Officers, Laura McCafferty and Barbara Hanning, to extend our range of STEM resources and develop new resources to support STEM Through Stories. This year’s COP26 in Glasgow has meant many schools are covering Learning for Sustainability and we have produced new resource… Read more

Our teacher book group is continuing to read, discuss and review a range of new books for children and we want to share this as widely as possible. Here we review ‘When the sky falls’ by Phil Earle and ‘The small things’ by Lisa Thompson #FalkirkReadingTeachers′ Book Group Read more

Welcome to the Flood Risk in Falkirk STEM Activity Box Inside the Teacher’s Guide below you will find all the information you need to deliver a jam-packed STEM lesson with a hands-on activity, local heritage links and future career inspiration for your pupils! The learning materials included are best suited… Read more

Welcome to the Wind Power in Falkirk STEM Activity Box Inside the Teacher’s Guide below you will find all the information you need to deliver a jam-packed STEM lesson with a hands-on activity, local heritage links and future career inspiration for your pupils! The learning materials included are best suited… Read more

You Can Be Campaign – Book Audit | Zero Tolerance The You Can Be Book Audit is a chance for ELCs and nurseries to win £100 worth of books by taking part in an audit of their book collections. The idea is to bring greater gender balance and challenge old-fashioned… Read more

Inclusive Stories Our last round of books focused on LGBT+ families and inclusive stories. All children deserve to see their own lives represented in the stories we share and books are a fantastic way to build empathy and understanding of others. The discussion was very positive and one of the… Read more

Over the coming weeks, Kelpies (imprint of Floris Publishers) will be adding to their bank of resources with videos of creators sharing their own stories as well as activities, discussion points and learning resources for children of all ages. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for details of the latest additions, and… Read more

The RED Book Award celebrates its 15th anniversary and to mark this achievement, the wonderful shortlist focuses on a BAME theme: Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby  Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin My Name’s Not Friday by Jon Walters The… Read more

Read and listen for free Sally Gardner’s Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon, illustrated by Nick Maland. An enchanting story by a much loved author about Betsy K Glory, the daughter of a mermaid and an ice-cream maker, who meets the mysterious Mr Tiger and they have a giant challenge:… Read more

The Learning Resource Service promoted The Book of Hopes when it was published last year, it is a wonderful book to comfort and inspire children. Edited by the well known and loved author Katherine Rundell, it contains contributions from more than 100 writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz,… Read more

From Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies Click here for video resources for 11 author/illustrators, freely available on the CLPE YouTube channel and enjoy listening to 11 picture books read aloud by the authors/illustrators. An amazing resource perfect for lockdown for parents and children to listen to. Enjoy! Benji Davies shows how to… Read more

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) have announced a free School Talks programme where a number of their Fellows will be delivering free online talks to schools throughout Scotland. All talks are presented by inspirational experts, keen to enthuse and excite young people in P6 – S6 covering Sciences; Technologies;… Read more

A colourful free e-Book helping to talk through feelings around covid 19 with young children. Available from Oxford University Press here Winnie and Wilbur Stay at Home from the popular series by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul is available as an e-Book with fun activities and can be downloaded free… Read more

Enjoy an interview with the best selling author Dan Freedman, the writer of the FANTASTIC Jamie Johnson football novels,  take a Premier League  challenge and VERY IMPORTANTLY read Dan Freedman’s e-book The Kick Off here absolutely free! Enjoy! Read more

The RED Book Award, now in its 14th year, was in danger of not going ahead because of the coronavirus, however it was decided to organise the ceremony on-line. Over 70 teachers and pupils gathered on Microsoft Teams on 27/5/2020 to join the 4 wonderful shortlisted authors: Lauren James who… Read more

Award-winning children’s author, Katherine Rundell, has launched The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown, which is hosted exclusively on the National Literacy Trust’s Family Zone. Completely free for all children and families, the extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures… Read more

At this time you may wish to read stories online as one of the many ways to digitally engage children and young people. Many publishers understand this, and have temporarily lifted or adjusted their copyright guidelines and permissions, please visit this website to find out which publishers have adjusted their policies. You will… Read more

Due to the school closures, the deadline for sending submissions to the First Minister’s Reading Challenge has been extended to the 14th May 2020. Your evidence of nurturing a love of reading can be in the form of a piece of writing, or a film, photo diary, presentation or mind… Read more

Barrington Stoke have pulled together all their free learning resources which can be found here            The resources are a brilliant way to support children and young people’s learning as well as offering them exciting opportunities, for example the Young Editors Scheme, where young people can download manuscripts before publication and… Read more

  Falkirk Council’s Learning Resource Service has added e-books and unabridged e-audio books to the resources available to borrow for pupils and school staff. This is a brilliant way to develop and maintain a love of reading especially in the current situation where schools and public libraries are closed. We have invested in… Read more

  A free information book was released this week to help explain the coronavirus to children, illustrated by the Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler. You can access it here. Read more

  Falkirk Council’s RED (Read Enjoy Debate)  Book Award is now in its 14th year and the excellent shortlist of books is: The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen The Closest Thing to Flying by Gill Lewis Outwalkers by Fiona Shaw  The… Read more

The RED Book Award is run by the Learning Resource Service promoting reading for enjoyment for S2 and S3 pupils in Falkirk Council. The shortlist for this year’s RED Book Award was: Beneath by Gill Arbuthnot Salvage by Keren David Mind Blind by Lari Don Inflicted by Ria Frances All great books… Read more

The Learning Resource Service wishes you a Happy National Poetry Day! From nursery rhymes to epic poems, we have a broad range of poetry to support literacy in your school. Go to Falkirk Council’s Literacy Strategy to find out more about National Poetry Day. Read more

Scottish Book Trust run Book Week Scotland every year and Learning Resource Service wanted to be part of this. Many schools and public libraries take part in this every year but there was no overall plan for the Falkirk area. A team of representatives from secondary schools, public library, teachers and… Read more

Falkirk Council’s Learning Resource Service prides itself in excellent service delivery to all educational establishments in the Falkirk Council area. A film has been produced to promote the service which can be viewed here Read more