Book Launch success at St. Paul’s High

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Talented artists at St. Paul’s have published their own graphic novel.

Moving On Up!

‘Moving On Up’ is a collection of short stories, crafted into one fantastic comic. The drawings are beautifully done, showing off the individual style of each artist. Ideal for anyone  who may be facing a challenge, such as moving to secondary school, but also just great fun and a treat to read.

The seven members of St. Paul’s Cool Comics Club completed the graphic novel at their meetings in the school library. The sessions were supported by renowned graphic novelist, Neil Slorance.

The project was funded and supported by the Scottish Book Trust Author Residency programme, where an author or graphic novelist is matched up to a school to work together over several months, an honour given to very few schools. https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/live-literature/school-residencies/introducing-live-literature-school-residencies

The Book Launch, organised by the English dept., took place in the school library last week, and was attended by parents, friends, members of the school community, and Glasgow Libraries, who were all delighted to see the finished graphic novel. The Cool Comics Club members were on hand to chat and autograph copies.

Comics Club authors, Mrs Barcia and Neil at the Book Launch

At the launch, it was clear how proud everyone is of this fantastic project. The original idea was devised by Cat McGlinn – St. Paul’s former school librarian, and supported throughout by Mrs Barcia – English teacher, and Alison West – Glasgow Libraries. Neil congratulated the authors and said that it had been a pleasure to work with them. Likewise, everyone thoroughly enjoyed working with Neil. This was a great partnership.

While the celebration is now over, the artists can be confident that many readers will enjoy ‘Moving On Up’, and will be inspired by the themes of self-belief and resilience in the book. This shining example of good practice may well inspire other schools and comics fans to achieve their dreams.

by FK, Glasgow Libraries- School Library Service

Holyrood Secondary – Reading Schools Gold Award

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Holyrood Secondary has achieved Reading Schools Gold Accreditation. What a fantastic journey we’ve had!

Well done to every single young person, member of staff and parent who has been involved in promoting and celebrating reading. Thank you to our partners in the community : Glasgow Zine Library, and Govanhill Library. Huge thanks to Scottish Book Trust for supporting us on this journey, and providing the framework enabling us to mark off all our achievements while having fun with reading.

We’ve had many adventures such as Chapter Chats Book Group and Podcast, Zine Making Workshops, coffee mornings, whole school Read Around the World, author visits, Poetry at Hampden Bowling Club, and boundless energy and ideas from pupil helpers and Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers who have championed reading throughout. At the heart of it all has been enjoying and celebrating reading and getting the right book into the right hands of our wonderful keen readers. We’ve been reading in the library, in classrooms, in the fuel zone, in the playground, at home, on holiday. Books can be enjoyed everywhere, anytime.

The Reading Schools programme, developed by Scottish Book Trust, is an accreditation programme for schools that are committed to building a reading culture for their learners and communities. The programme supports schools to build a reading culture, where every pupil is encouraged to feed their imagination through books. There are three levels of accreditation – Core, Silver and Gold. Reading Schools – Scottish Book Trust

We’ve had an amazing time, and can heartily recommend Reading Schools to anyone who wants to celebrate reading, with plenty of help on hand from Scottish Book Trust.

Holyrood Library : Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers

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Our Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers have been doing fantastic work, promoting books and reading, creating book displays, organising fun activities, along with regular admin tasks like adding books to stock.

Milly in S3 has always been an avid reader.

Milly Recommends:

“Percy Jackson is a fantasy book based on Greek mythology. It’s a story about a boy who discovered he is a demigod (half god and half human) he gets sent to this camp for demigods where he finds out that monsters are after demigods, He gets sent out on a dangerous quest. These books are in a series of 5 AND the new tv series just came out on Disney +. If you enjoyed the descriptions, then I have donated 4/5 of the books to the library.”

New copies!

Now on Disney+

“Reading has dramatically changed my way of writing in English, I can see the difference in my writing for over the years from when I started reading. It’s also a very fun way to pass time with the right book” Milly

Celeste – helping the school community

Celeste is now in her second year of volunteering, on course for the Silver Award. She has previously created a whole new Music Section in the library, added new stock into the catalogue, and tidied and squared up the layout of the library after a busy day of classes. A highlight was assisting the Scottish Ambulance Service every week, by helping them with their equipment for the Saving Young Lives workshops. This was a huge task, and usually involved several trips up and down the lift with precious cargo of equipment. Paramedics Sharon and Frank were so impressed by Celeste’s commitment and reliability.

Amna – supporting young learners

For her Bronze Award, Amna developed skills in supporting and encouraging S1/2 library users, who often enjoyed the fun quizzes and activities she devised. This term for Silver Award, Amna came up with the idea of creating an inter-active Animal book display, with paw prints to colour in. Animals are very popular with S1, and Mr Mansefield’s class used the book display to help with research for a class project. Fun and educational !

Animal books, with paw prints

Zurie – Creative Writer and book lover

As a published author herself – with the White Water Writers’ Group – Zurie has plenty of knowledge of what makes a good book. During her volunteering time she has created book displays, and helped to keep the library catalogue up to date by adding new books, deleting old titles, and choosing books to be purchased for our Dystopian book display.

What to Read for New Year book display

Chosen by Us (S4 Writers Group), Dystopian

Filza – graphics and design specialist

Continuing onto Silver, after completing Bronze, Filza uses her design skills to make posters and whiteboard signs for special events such as Book Week Scotland, Earth Day, and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Ceremony in December 2025. Her posters always add style to our library events.

 

Chapter Chats Podcast

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At Holyrood, our Chapter Chats Book Group is attempting a Podcast! This is part of our Reading Schools journey. We’re all very excited, and we’ve had lots of help and support from all round the school. Mrs. Panaretou from the Music Dept. has shown us how to use Garage Band and lent us special recording equipment. Bilal in S6 is our sound engineer.

Setting up for recording

Chapter Chats was set up in 2023, as a book group “for all Busy Bookers in Holyrood, to openly recommend and rant about what you are reading”. We love doing this! We have 9 regular members, and we’ve met for special recording sessions 3 times – in September/ October.

Mr. McGrath and Bilal have hosted the podcasts. We could talk about books all day, so we’ve tried various things to keep on track, such as Quick Fire questions. It’s been so much fun, and we’ve learned lots about each other’s favourite books, and new genres to try.

Some of our Podcast crew

Our Book Group founder members, now in S5

Our next step is working out how to publish our Podcast. We’re looking at various options, and also looking at good practice from other schools throughout Scotland. Our Podcast will be available soon.

Ms Kindness

Holyrood Update – 100 Book Challenge

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Well done to all new S1 pupils at Holyrood for showing amazing enthusiasm for reading.

Ms Kaya’s class , 1D, deserves special mention. They have set an ambitious target : – to read 100 books before the Christmas holidays! This class has an excellent work ethic, and enjoyed their visit to the school library on Thursday, with everyone either borrowing a book (or several books), reading quietly, chatting about books, and creating mini-booklets for the ‘Cosy Autumn Reads’ book display.

1D with their excellent book choices

Autumn mini-books

Reading for pleasure and personal choice is very important to this discerning group of readers. Titles borrowed include Naruto, Avatar, Dog Man, and Bunny vs Monkey, as manga and graphic novels are extremely popular. Some keen readers brought in their own copies of the incredibly popular ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ trilogy. Fact books are also a hit, including first aid, animals, famous footballers and Islamic art.

This class is bound to meet their target very soon. Good luck with your reading, and thank you Ms Kaya and 1D for such an enjoyable library period. Come back soon 🙂

Ms Kindness

June 2025 Roundup – Whitehill Secondary School

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Monthly Roundup:

We had such a successful year here at Whitehill Secondary School Library. With 6000+ visits and 8600+ books issued, pupils have very much enjoyed engaging with the library service and the collections. Our Little Pride Library for our LGBT+ group and our Advanced Readers book group have been highlights of our year and we very much look forward to establishing more relationships with the school’s departments and clubs over the 25/26 school year. Thank you to the wonderful English Department for all their continued support over the months. The School Library will be closed for essential maintenance work beginning week beginning June 23rd.

Book of the Day:

03.06.25: Liccle Bit by Alex Wheatle

05.06.25: The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

09.06.25: Climate Emergency Atlas by Dan Hooke

11.06.25:  Keedie by Elle McNicoll

 Author Spotlight:

02.06.25: Jasbinder Bilan

09.06.25: Dan Freedman

23.06.25: Gill Lewis

 

Series Spotlight:

02.06.25: Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

09.06.25: Five Nights at Freddies by Scott Cawthon

23.06.25: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

 

Literary and Cultural Celebrations for April (Book Lists and Displays):

Audiobook Appreciation Month: June is Audiobook Month, a time to celebrate and promote the listening experience of audiobooks. Check out Glasgow Life’s audiobook range on Borrowbox and Libby by Overdrive.

Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller History Month: Through celebration, education and raising awareness, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month helps to tackle prejudice, challenge myths and to amplify the voices of Gypsies, Romas ad Travellers in wider society.

National Crime Reading Month: National Crime Reading Month is an annual initiative spearheaded and developed by the Crime Writer’s Association. It runs throughout June, this year in collaboration with The Reading Agency. National crime Reading Month aims t bring new books to existing readers and new readers to the world’s most popular and best-selling genre.

Pride Month:  Pride Month is an annual celebration dedicated to the celebration of LGBTQ+ history and contributions and coincides with the anniversary if the 1969 Stonewall riots.

World Environment Day (5th June): World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.

World Oceans Day (8th June): World Oceans Day aims to raise the awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.

Empathy Day (12th June): Empathy Day is a national event in the UK that is part of the wider Empathy Day festival running from June 2nd-12th. The theme for 2025 is “What’s your spark?”. The day aims to inspire children and young people to learn about empathy and experience it through stories and put it into action.

Refugee Week (16th-22nd): Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience pf refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

Windrush Day (22nd June): Windrush Day marks the anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948 and to recognise and thank all of those from the Windrush generation and their descendants to their enormous contributions.

International Women in Engineering Day (23rd June): International Women in Engineering Day is an international campaign that aims to raise the profile of women in engineering and encourage more people to consider engineering career. This day highlights the achievements of women engineering and provides a platform to celebrate their work and inspire the next generation of female engineers.

 

 Trending Book Lists

 Epic Reads New Releases | The Guardian Children’s Book Roundup | LoveReading4Kids Books of the Month | Scholastic Books of the Month | Scottish Book Trust Book Lists |Toppsta Monthly Highlights | Waterstones Books of the Month

 

 Book Awards

Winners:  FCBG Children’s Book Awards | Jhalak Prize | James Tait Black Prizes | Orwell Prizes | Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction | Sports Book Awards | UKLA Book Awards | Women’s Prize | YOTO Carnegies

June 2025 Roundup – Shawlands Academy School Library

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Monthly Roundup:

Rights Respecting Schools: We are pleased to announce that Shawlands Academy has achieved Silver accreditation on our Rights Respecting Schools journey. Pupils can browse our updated human rights collections in our newly named Rights Respecting Reads section.

Paint: We are so excited for our School Library to be painted over the summer. Pupils have submitted their preference for colours so all will be revealed come August!

Book of the Day:

02.06.25: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow

09.06.25: Climate Action: The Future is In Our Hands by Georgina Stevens and Katie Rewse

11.06.25: The Pavee and the Buffer Girl by Siobhan Dowd

13.06.25: Ocean by DK

16.06.25: When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed, Iman Geddy

18.06.25: Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

20.06.25: The Fights that Makes Us by Sarah Hagger-Holt

23.06.25: Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah

25.06.25: Rebel Girls STEM Stars: 25 Tales of Women in Science by Rebel Girls

 

Author Spotlight:

02.06.25: Ele Fontaine

09.06.25: Yaba Badoe

23.06.25: Christopher Edge

 

Series Spotlight:

02.06.25: Little Badman by Humza Arshad and Henry White

09.06.25: Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

23.06.25: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

 

Literary and Cultural Celebrations for April (Book Lists and Displays):

Audiobook Appreciation Month: June is Audiobook Month, a time to celebrate and promote the listening experience of audiobooks. Check out Glasgow Life’s audiobook range on Borrowbox and Libby by Overdrive.

Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller History Month: Through celebration, education and raising awareness, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month helps to tackle prejudice, challenge myths and to amplify the voices of Gypsies, Romas ad Travellers in wider society.

National Crime Reading Month: National Crime Reading Month is an annual initiative spearheaded and developed by the Crime Writer’s Association. It runs throughout June, this year in collaboration with The Reading Agency. National crime Reading Month aims t bring new books to existing readers and new readers to the world’s most popular and best-selling genre.

Pride Month:  Pride Month is an annual celebration dedicated to the celebration of LGBTQ+ history and contributions and coincides with the anniversary if the 1969 Stonewall riots.

World Environment Day (5th June): World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.

World Oceans Day (8th June): World Oceans Day aims to raise the awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.

Empathy Day (12th June): Empathy Day is a national event in the UK that is part of the wider Empathy Day festival running from June 2nd-12th. The theme for 2025 is “What’s your spark?”. The day aims to inspire children and young people to learn about empathy and experience it through stories and put it into action.

Refugee Week (16th-22nd): Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience pf refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

Windrush Day (22nd June): Windrush Day marks the anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948 and to recognise and thank all of those from the Windrush generation and their descendants to their enormous contributions.

International Women in Engineering Day (23rd June): International Women in Engineering Day is an international campaign that aims to raise the profile of women in engineering and encourage more people to consider engineering career. This day highlights the achievements of women engineering and provides a platform to celebrate their work and inspire the next generation of female engineers.

  Trending Book Lists

 Epic Reads New Releases | The Guardian Children’s Book Roundup | LoveReading4Kids Books of the Month | Scholastic Books of the Month | Scottish Book Trust Book Lists |Toppsta Monthly Highlights | Waterstones Books of the Month

  Book Awards

Winners:  FCBG Children’s Book Awards | Jhalak Prize | James Tait Black Prizes | Orwell Prizes | Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction | Sports Book Awards | UKLA Book Awards | Women’s Prize | YOTO Carnegies

St Roch’s Reads: June

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Empathy Day 12th June

Empathy Day is a day dedicated to celebrating and promoting empathy, particularly through the power of stories. It encourages individuals of all ages to develop their empathy skills by understanding and sharing the feelings and experiences of others.

Books and storytelling are central to Empathy Day, as reading can help individuals develop empathy by helping us to experience different perspectives. Empathy Lab Uk provided lots of free activities and resources for taking part in your school. In St Roch’s, we created an ’empathy bookshelf’, full of titles recommended in the read for empathy guide. Pupils shared author quotes on the tannoy, explaining what empathy is and the power of reading for empathy. We also had some fun class activities, creating colourful Emotion Maps to explore all the feelings that crop up in a day. 

Titles from the Read for Empathy collections are available free to download on the digital library. You can browse a selection on our library Padlet here. 

Reading Schools: Waterstones visit

As part of our Reading Schools journey, this month the leadership team went on trip to Waterstones to give pupils a chance to choose their own library stock. Pupils were given a budget and tasked with choosing new books they thought their peers would like to read. They put a lot of thought into choosing, asking classmates in advance for requests and putting their booktok knowledge to good use. It was a fantastic day out, Waterstones is a beautiful book shop with a great stock selection and very helpful staff. The reading leadership group had a great time and did a wonderful job, the books have been super popular.

Library Assistant Awards

We had our library team end of year party this month, and what a celebration it was. Pupils worked hard for months to complete tasks on their bingo sheets and I was very impressed with how many boxes were ticked! We had a prize raffle for pupils who completed a line or ten boxes and special prizes for the Bingo Champions. Congratulations to Iman and Roya for being the absolute best Bingo-ers, completing every box on the sheet.

Some pupil volunteers also received Library Assistant Awards. The awards acknowledge pupils’ commitment, responsibility and dedication to their library assistant role.  To achieve the awards they have given their time to work on reading projects, create displays, act as mentors and care for library areas. Pupils received a certificate, goody bag and a pin to reflect their bronze, silver or gold awards. Congratulations to all our award winners (particularly to Ore for silver and Iman for gold), who have now been promoted to senior assistants. You should be very proud of yourselves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for this term, have a great summer everyone. Happy reading!

CHS Rights Respecting Book-of-the-Month: May

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Castlemilk High School: a Rights Respecting School

The Rights Respecting Schools Award recognises a school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within the school and beyond.  Each month this year, the school library has featured a book, recommended by Unicef. These books highlight different articles from the UNCRC, helping to raise our pupils’ awareness of their rights. The final book of the year is the graphic novel When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. This incredible true story links to several of articles including:  

28: Right to an education
27: Adequate standard of living
19: Protection from violence, abuse and neglect 

Eleven-year-old Omar lives with his little brother Hassan in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. They’ve been there for seven years now, waiting for the civil war in Somalia to end so that they can go home to the family farm and try to find their parents.

Life in the camp is hard: Omar has to look after Hassan, queue for water, queue for food. Dadaab feels like a giant waiting room, but Omar looks for hope around every corner. He plays football with his friends, entertains Hassan, and when he starts going to school, begins to reframe his future: if he can get an education, perhaps he can become a UN social worker and help other children like him.

An intimate picture of a very real boy and what life in a refugee camp is really like, When Stars Are Scattered is available now to borrow from the school library.