Author Archives: Mrs Kindness

World Book Day at Holyrood

For World Book Day, our focus was reading for pleasure. With so much fun to fit in, WBD became a Week, instead of a day!  Young people and staff enjoyed sharing their love of reading. Here’s a round-up of some of the activities.

Book Reviews: Fabia & Hunnah in S3 are keen readers of  new and trending fiction and popped in after school to chat about books.

 

“A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is such a thrilling book! It’s about a high school girl named Pip who decides to investigate a murder case for a school project. As she delves deeper, she uncovers secrets and twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. The book is full of suspense and unexpected turns. It’s a real page-turner! If you enjoy mysteries, you’ll love this one! Fabia, S3

“The Inheritance Games” I loved this book there are so many puzzles for you to solve all throughout the book, not just in the writing, but all of the people are just as mysterious as their words. I found that the subtle romance subplots involving the four brothers were also intriguing because one of them is a 10 but so is his brother. Hunnah, S3

 

 Chantelle, S6 always finds time for reading, even with a busy study schedule : For World Book Day, I recommend ‘A Song of Wraith and Ruin’ by Roseanne A. Brown. I rated this book five stars. It is a fast paced, action-packed story about two people who experience love, loss, betrayal and it is very bingeable! It honestly felt almost like watching a movie (I even bought my own copy after reading it).

Something I really liked was that the main characters are black. This is the first fantasy book I have ever seen to have a black main character, which as a black person myself, made me feel seen and recognised. I felt closer to the characters, especially Karina who bears the weight of expectation of everyone around her as she is the crown princess.

I loved that this book doesn’t portray black people as the negative stereotype seen in films, but instead portrays us as exactly what we are. Human. Chantelle, S6

 

 

Book Breakfast

Staff and Pupils joined together for a Book Breakfast before start of class, on World Book Day. We enjoyed croissants, fruit and snacks while chatting about what we’re reading. What a great way to start the day!

Throughout the day, a feast of activities was on offer, organised by our brilliant staff and young people all around the school, including a Book Swap table; Dressing up as your favourite book character (Mr. McGrath made an amazing Yarvi); a Drop Everything And Read session for the whole of S1-S3. And there were fun activities in English, including a Read around the World research task, and a Design a Book Token competition in the library.

‘Chosen By Us’ books

Our S2 Writers’ Group were given a budget of £100 to choose anti-racist, diverse books for the library. This was part of a School Library Improvement Fund project, continued from last year. So far the original group members have mentored a Writing Club for S1, written book reviews, poetry, and an article for eMag ‘Swatch’, and are now taking part in stock selection, while also welcoming some fantastic new members to the Group. The new ‘Chosen By Us’ section includes these superb authors : Onjali Rauf, A.M. Dassu, Sharna Jackson, Benjamin Zephaniah, Alice Walker. We also wanted to include some authors new to us such as Danielle Jawando, Faridah Abike Iyimide, and Clare Weze.

This is still a work in progress, and will take a bit of experimenting to get the labels in the right place to not hide the book covers! As American author Kwame Alexander says “All that is good and accomplished in this World takes work and a little chaos”.

We look forward to reading and chatting together about our new books.

Happy reading, and be kind to yourself this busy month!

 

 

What We’re Reading @Holyrood

This month in the Library, our young people highlighted two special events: – Holocaust Memorial Day, and World Hijab Day.

Our S3 Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers made a book display for Holocaust Memorial Day.

Readers from S1 & S2 classes chatted about what they’ve been reading, and here are their recommendations :

S1-S3 pupils’ booklist

 

 

 

We discussed the importance of books and films, as there are now very few remaining survivors of the Holocaust, making it more important than ever that their voices be honoured and saved for future generations.

 

 

On 1st February we celebrated World Hijab Day. Our book display included authors and book characters who proudly wear the hijab, including Ayaan Mohamud, A.M. Dassu, Tahereh Maafi, Hiba Noor Khan, & S. K. Ali.

Our Rights Respecting Schools pupils did a tannoy announcement, and explained all about the origins of World Hijab Day, founded by Nazma Khan. While making our book display, we chatted about Olympic fencer  Ibtihaj Muhammad (who has written several books), and ballet dancer Stephanie Kurlow. We all want to see more library books showing better representation of hijab wearing, so we did some research on this, and  have ordered some exciting new titles.

The lovely artwork is by Evelina and Brenna in S5.

 

 

Reading for pleasure

Lorraine, at her Waterstone’s book launch

I went to the book launch of ‘The Island Swimmers’, and met Lorraine Kelly at Waterstones bookshop. It was lovely to meet a TV personality who is such a passionate supporter of books and reading. Can’t wait to read this, as I’ve been to Orkney , where the book is set, many times, and it’s a place that I love (although I’ve never been wild swimming!).

 

Coming soon….

‘Reading Schools’ gifts from Scottish Book Trust

We have lots to look forward to in March including World Book Day, lots of reading, a good bit of book partying from our young people & staff, and more great work from our Reading Schools leadership group. Happy reading!

Special guests at Holyrood

We love having visitors to the School Library. In December, we welcomed poet Tawona Sithole who led a creative writing workshop for S1/S2, involving music, games, drama- with some amazing acting skills on show, and writing our own stories.

Our young writers were very inspired, and supported each other by listening attentively as each group read their story out to the audience. Everyone had a great time, and we hope to see Tawona for another visit sometime soon.

 

This event was supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

We continue to enjoy our Writing for Fun lunchtime club. Our new theme for January is poetry and we hope to write some  poems about ‘things that make  us happy’.

This week, Fiona Haddow from the Mitchell Library visited us to lead a Focus Group. We looked through a selection of books she had brought, and chatted about which authors we would most like to meet. Our young people felt very honoured to have this chance, as Fiona will use these opinions to help shape the programme for the ‘Wee Write’ Book Festival. This is a brilliant celebration of reading, where Glasgow Libraries brings authors directly into schools, and also holds events, including Family days, at the Mitchell Library.

Well done to our S2/S3 Focus Group. We really enjoyed speaking to Fiona, hearing about Wee Write, and everyone loved their thank you gifts of books.

End of term fun, Holyrood Library

The holidays are coming – time to celebrate the work of our amazing Library volunteers before we head off for a well-earned rest.  They’ve worked tirelessly to promote reading and make the library a friendly and welcoming place. Whatever you need, the library helpers will be there for you!

Senior helper evaluating books to keep

R. in S5 has used her I.T skills to master the library management system (Spark) and now adds in new stock, can search the catalogue, identifies old books to be weeded and comes up with excellent ideas inspired by her love of reading.

Surrounded by books

S6 pupil book recommendations

C. in S6 shares book recommendations, is always up to date with new releases, and is a life-long lover of books. She balances this with a busy S6 schedule, often studying in the library after school.

Our Duke of Edinburgh S3 Volunteers bring fun to our lunchtimes. S1 loved their  design a Christmas Tree, & Elf Hat activities. It’s been a privilege to see a special bond grow between S1 and S3. So far 120 pupils in S1 have completed the Christmas Reading Challenge, run in collaboration with Community Libraries.

Lunchtime competition for S1

S1 Helpers at work

S1 Helpers also do a great job, running the issue desk at intervals and lunchtimes, coming up with games & colouring in, and encouraging everyone to borrow books.

 

 

S1 pupils enjoyed our special writing competition for Book Week Scotland. This competition was pupil led and inspired by award winning author Lindsay Littleson’s book EuroSpies. The mission was: “Write a job application to become a Spy” Some great entries. Lindsay thought they would definitely get the  job!

A last thought as we’re doing our Christmas shopping – good to consider how important books are not only for enjoyment but also for wellbeing and achievement. Research  by the Scottish Book Trust explains that “access to books at a young age allows children to flourish” and “Reading for pleasure is the biggest indicator of a child’s future success”  https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/articles/the-importance-of-book-ownership

Here’s a lovely personal memory shared by one of our sixth year pupils, about the importance of books.

 

Well done everyone and Happy Christmas !

Holyrood Anti-Racism Library

S6 pupils at Holyrood Secondary organised an Anti-Racism outreach library in the fuel zone. This event promoted anti-racist, diverse books, in a friendly setting – many young people and staff stopped to browse, chat and borrow during their lunch hour. The books were selected from the school library and included biographies, travel and culture, and fiction by authors of all different nationalities and cultures. Huge thank you to our S6 Anti-Racism Leadership Group for organising and making this such a fun lunchtime! Well done to our S1 helpers too, for taking over during BGE lunchtime.

 

 

October is Black History Month. Well done to Miss Porch’s S1 class, who took great pride in choosing books about black scientists, sports people, politicians and celebrities for our BHM book display. 

Our Holyrood Family is made up of young people from 44 different countries, speaking 62 languages (and counting!). We enjoy celebrating our many different cultures, with books and events in the library.  Our library stock is developing to better reflect the diversity of our school community. New ideas on how we can do this, are always welcome.

October Book Recommendations 

Librarian’s choice:

The Happiest Man on Earth: Author, Eddie Jaku survived terrible cruelty in the Nazi death camps. This is an incredible book about hope, courage and friendship that helped him survive.

Student’s Choice

Planet Omar, by Zanib Mian: Good for fans of ‘Wimpy Kid’, Omar with have you roaring with laughter.

Happy Reading!

Holyrood Library, September Update

What I’m Reading ….

Before the Coffee Gets Cold 

our students are reading ….

Bright by Jessica Jung

Both titles are part of our September theme : East and South East Asian Heritage Month, #ESEAHM celebrating the writing and culture of China, Japan, Korea and other countries in this geographical area.

The book display was created by our S3 Duke of Edinburgh volunteers.

Our Writing for Fun lunchtime club is new this month. Inspired by our White Water Writers project last session, our original group of young writers are now mentoring S1 pupils to enjoy creative writing. They chose fun writing prompts including “Pretend you’re a toothbrush”.

We had a brilliant time. The mentors are busy making plans for next month, including a new theme, and a Competition.

Well done everyone. Some of our S1 and S2 pupils’ creative writing, and illustrations :

Try something new

Thanks to Adam for bringing in a favourite book for me to try. As I’m not usually a fan of Sci-fi/ Fantasy, I’m really enjoying reading a new genre. Happy reading everyone.

Children of Time

The #Rood Reads Library Update

For end of term, our Reading Schools Committee held a celebration event, and chose their highlights of the year:

Fatima, S3 loved the visit from Nadine Aisha Jassatt. Nadine read a poem from ‘Let Me Tell You This’ and told us about her brand-new book ‘The Stories Grandma Forgot’.  We shared lots of different words in different World languages, and thought about how to use these in our own poems.

 

Mehreen, S3 has enjoyed writing about books and sharing book recommendations. Here’s our display to celebrate Eid.

 

Sam likes chilling out in the Library (me too!). The group has lots of fun together, like the Book Oscars at Easter time, and choosing a book from the rewards vending machine.

 

Everyone agreed that Zine Club, run by Ailbhe from Glasgow Zine Library was brilliant. “We loved the zine making”.

S1 enjoyed meeting Maisie Chan, and learning about the importance of diversity in books. This was part of the YA-ldi Glasgow Schools’ Book Awards.

the Duke of Edinburgh library volunteers did excellent work keeping the book displays up to date, and helping to run the library at lunchtimes.

International Women’s Day

12 of our young people wrote a novel together as part of the White Water Writers’ Project. An amazing achievement. We celebrated in style with a Book Launch party for parents, friends and teachers.

What a year! So much fun. Have a wonderful holiday, and join us for more reading adventures in August.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Highlights at Holyrood

We hope you enjoy our reading highlights from December/ January. Huge thank you to our visitors, and also to the wonderful Library Helpers and young people for taking part!

Miss Brown’s S2 enjoyed a drawing workshop with Neil Slorance. We were inspired to hear about Neil’s early comics, love of drawing, travelogues and astronomy, and the brilliant graphic novels ‘Dungeon Fun’, and Doctor Who. We learned how to draw  faces, adding features to create expressions, and even had a shot at drawing our own comic strips, collaboratively with classmates.

This event was funded by the School Library Improvement Fund.

   

Also in January, we welcomed author Manjeet Mann, Clare from Refuweegee, and Fraser, Thomas and Clara from the Scottish Book Trust. This event was part of a Scottish Friendly Book Tour. This workshop was amazing! We heard about Manjeet’s journey as a writer, enjoyed readings from her verse novels ‘Run Rebel’, and ‘The Crossing’, tried some free-writing exercises, shared our work to the audience, had a Q. & A. So much great feedback :

“I loved the part when we had activities to do with a famous author. It inspired me to be more imaginative and to write more”   Haya (S2)

“S2  are currently looking at equality and empowerment, and this event helped to bring what we had been talking about in class to life. The pupil interaction (writing task) was brilliant. All round super event!” Mrs Ford, PT Pupil Voice

Also impressive was the care and effort  put in by all young people and staff to provide a warm welcome. An outstanding day, happy memories were made, and pupils left inspired!

In December, we had visits from Ailbhe and Martha, from Glasgow Zine Library. We loved making our own zines at these fun workshops.  GZL is an amazing local resource, and we are very grateful to Ailbhe for setting up links with us and working with our wonderful Equalities Alliance and Anti-Racist groups.

 

Also in December, over 200 S1 pupils completed the Glasgow Libraries Christmas Reading Challenge and received these lovely certificates. Well done everyone.

Our pupil helpers have been busy creating displays. Here is a selection:

World Hijab Day

Holocaust Memorial Day

Burns Day Poetry

The Reading Schools Committee is back in action. We enjoyed a Christmas party, put together a list of favourite books to read for Christmas and we’re now getting to grips with the YAldi shortlist. YAldi – Glasgow School Libraries’ Book Award – is a new event in the reading calendar, organised by Ms DeLeavey and Ms Sferrazzo 😊. We are looking forward to interviewing Ann Sei Lin via e-mail (what an amazing opportunity)! and voting for our favourite book in April.

Ann Sei Lin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Reviews Ending on a high note, our keen readers are always happy to share their book reviews. We hope that these will help you find a book that you will love. Happy Reading !

The Night Circus by Erin Morgensten “I really loved this book. It’s the definition of a fantasy book. It’s so magical and really transports you to another world. Definitely my favourite book.” Isha, S4

 

 

 

 

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell “Beautifully written and full of historical detail. Deeply moving; I would recommend this book” Ms Blackburn

Mrs Kindness

September 11, 2022

New Term

Our focus this term is to enjoy reading! Our new S1 pupils have been fantastic already. This week we’ve held a Playground library at lunchtime, and also plan to celebrate Roald Dahl day.

   

September projects :

  • Led by Mr, McLeod in Social Subjects, we have started our Superhero Readers project, aimed at encouraging our young people to learn more about the World through reading. The new books include both fiction and non-fiction. Our updated Social Subjects section will be decorated with pupil artwork and Superhero signs! (photo shows work in progress).

This hardworking S1 class are examining the books and deciding on headings such as Climate change, Refugees, Racism, Crime, Poverty

  • New book selection and displays will have input from our Rights Respecting School Committee and newly formed pupil Equalities Alliance, to ensure the library is inclusive and welcoming to everyone.
  • Last year we were successful in gaining Reading Schools Silver Accreditation. This year we are going for Gold with the fantastic leadership of Ms Longo and the Reading Schools Committee. Here are some of the Committee, enjoying their well-deserved trophy.

Summer Reading Journey

Everyone loves time for reading during the holidays.  Books (and films) can also help boost tourism.

In June, I visited St. Abbs.  Are you a fan of Marvel Comics and the Avengers movies? In ‘Endgame’ filmed in 2017, St. Abbs beautiful coastline became the location for Thor’s home planet.

In the Visitor Centre you can hold the hammer of Thor, take a quiz, and find out all about the filming.

   

I also visited Rosslyn Chapel . The intricacy and beauty of this building is testimony to the skill of the craftsmen who built it in the 15th century. By taking a guided tour, I learned about the architecture and secrets of Rosslyn, the struggle to preserve the building, and how Dan Brown’s bestseller the Da Vinci Code, came to the rescue, putting Rosslyn Chapel firmly on the tourist map, and raising much needed income.

 

 

The Chapel famously appeared in the 2006 film, with a stellar cast including Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou and Sir Ian McKellen. After a murder in the Louvre Museum, and a frantic chase through London, Professor Langdon and Sophie Neveu finally solve the secret of the Grail after visiting the Chapel’s crypt.

Staff at Holyrood are enthusiastic readers. Mrs Livingstone has very kindly shared one of her favourite books of the summer : The Alice Network. Having a great interest in history, she has also visited Norte Dame de Lorette, the largest French military cemetery. There can be found information and a small memorial to Louise de Bettignies who was the real life founder of the Allies WW1 spy network , (known as the Alice Network in Kate Quinn’s book).

 

Historical fiction can often bring incredible true stories to life, and helps us to understand important figures from the past.

Thank you also to Ms Stevenson, Ms Crawford and Mrs McDonald for recommending books borrowed from the school library that they enjoyed over the Summer. (‘Eleanor Oliphant’ is also one of my favourites).

             

Pupil & staff recommendations are always superb!

 

Khadija, S3 : “The Ms Marvel Comic is sooo good, especially of you are a Marvel fan! You will love the Ms Marvel series on Disney channel too, It is about a Pakistani girl and it is very diverse”.

 

 

 

Zirsh, S6, read many books during the holidays. This one was perfect for summer reading as it was about friendship, and travelling together, very enjoyable.

Have a wonderful Autumn term

 

 

Holyrood Library – Summer Roundup

Summer term has been a feast of reading and fun!

In May, we took part in ‘Keep the Heid and Read’, celebrating how reading for pleasure can improve mental health.

 

 

 

“Fiction books are great if you want to step away from social media for a while”. This is great advice from Mehek (S6)

 

 

In June, we celebrated Empathy Day. We chatted about how reading can take you to other worlds, and let you walk in someone else’s shoes. We selected our favourite books for Empathy and made a colourful display.

 

Lunchtime Reading We were delighted to win 10 copies of Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin. We hope to read and review this book together. Happy to share our spare copies!

“One girl against an Empire”

 

Our English dept. organised a whole school Literacy Day for S2, The mission was to solve the crime of the missing Stone of Destiny, which involved investigating and forensic science, using expertise from depts. across the school.

In the library, we created a display of detective fiction and criminology books.

We also researched the Stone of destiny and designed Wanted posters to help find it!

   

Zines : Mr. Kelly and Miss Johnston’s S2 classes created amazing zines in Science and made a display for readers to help themselves.

Bookmarks : Mumina and Abdul made these beautiful bookmarks as gifts to take away.

We were excited to win a copy of Hag Storm by Victoria Williamson (at a book auction to raise funds for Malawi). Great inspiration for a competition! Over 30 pupils entered ‘Name the Haggis’. The winning entry was Hector the Horse=Riding Haggis, inspired by the Tam O’Shanter theme in Victoria’s novel.

To round off the year, Holyrood was awarded Silver accreditation as a Reading School. Superb recognition of the work of our Reading Schools Committee, and all pupils and staff who promote a reading culture in the school, The library has been glowing with all the pupil care and nurturing. Congratulations to everyone, and thank you to Ms Longo for making it so much fun to work on this project with a brilliant team.

Have a great Summer everyone, and keep reading!