Author Archives: Ms Muir

Merry Christmas from All Saints Library

It’s been a whirlwind of a year here at All Saints Library

To round up the year we have our fabulous library assistants who decorated the library for the season with a fabulous tree and a book tree!

If you are in the mood for some cosy Christmas reads, check the latest display as well!

Finally, the library was full to the brim for the annual seniors lunch with some amazing origami decorations made by pupils in the art department.

Thanks for an amazing end to the year All Saints and we will see you in 2025!

Bringing the Museum to the Library

October and November have been busy in All Saint’s Library.

We were very lucky to have some artefacts from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum brought into the library for S2 pupils to engage with. The boxes look at WWII On the Front and the Home Front and include some incredible original objects from over 75 years ago. Pupils were able to see the weight and size of a replica incendiary bomb. Pick up a real Nazi flag from WWII, hold a lighter made out of coins and shells from the battlefields, and read the letters home soldiers sent to their loved ones.

After the session there was a WWII book display ready to go for more information and a chance to learn more about soldiers on the front lines and life in the UK during WWII.Thanks to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum for lending us the boxes and letting the S2’s get hands on with history! 

 

We also celebrated Languages Week with a special display linked into all the lovely events happening across the school. The fashion show in the square was a particular highlight! Pupils were happy to see some of the languages they speak on display and available in the library and it was a superb opportunity to highlight the diverse range of books on offer at the school.

As we near the end of December it is almost time to get into the Christmas spirit and enjoy some cosy festive reads.

New Books, New Clubs, New Displays!

It has been a very busy start to the new school year here at All Saints Secondary School Library!

We have welcomed a new cohort of S1 pupils, with many new faces helping in the library (and lots of lovely regulars from the previous year still coming along)

It has been particularly busy here with the launch of our brand new timetable with regular clubs on all library days during lunchtime.

You may notice some great new clubs happening here with Monday Craft Club, Tuesday Chess and board games and Thursday is now Read, Chat and Chill.

Craft Club has included some fun creations with pupils learning to crochet chains, and make Origami frogs!

There is some heated competition on a Tuesday during Chess Club.

…and Friday’s are when the library assistants shine and help make some new displays.

So far we have had a Fair Trade Fortnight display as part of a theme across the school.  As well as out ‘Blue’ Display!

 

Each week I have been bringing in some fresh flowers from my garden to brighten up the library as well. As we head into the September weekend I think everyone has enjoyed a strong start to the school year here!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to another fabulous year at Hyndland Secondary.

We start off with the fantastic news that Hyndland Secondary has been recognised by the Scottish Book Trust as a Reading School.  Well done to all involved on achieving this award!

We are starting the year off with a bang as our trusty Library Assistants from S2 have made this video to remind their fellow students to return their library books.

 

 

We have also had a big sort out over the summer of the non-fiction section which is now clearly labelled and marked with brand new categories and lots more space for front facing book. Hopefully this helps makes finding the books you enjoy a bit easier!

 

We are off to a fantastic start at Hyndland Secondary School Library – we are all looking forward to an exciting year ahead!

 

Spring is in the Air at Hyndland Library

Spring has truly sprung at Hyndland Library, the flowers are starting to come out, the bees are buzzing and the romance novels are more popular than ever.

Our S1 Library Assistants have put together a fabulous display for spring readers with some sunshine and blue skies in the hope the sun starts to come out soon! They chose a selection of books around the theme including lots of pretty spring covers. Here they are putting the new display together.

 

Some books featured in the display include the titles below. Click on the image for a link to the ebook which can be borrowed through the Libby App using your library card!

Hyndland Secondary is also looking to better reflect the diversity within the school by creating and Equality and Diversity steering group lead by the parent council. As the council meets in the Library we thought it would be great to showcase some of the fantastic authors available on our shelves. 

 

Try some of the amazing books by clicking on the books below to get a copy of the ebook through the library using the Libby app.

 

 

World Book Day at All Saints

We had an action packed World Book Day (or rather week!) at All Saint’s Secondary Library.

We started this exciting week with author Hiba Noor Khan who came along to All Saints as part of the Scottish Friendly Book Tour with the Scottish Book Trust. She spent some time talking with the S1’s all about her experience as a writer and how she goes about writing books and creating characters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students created some of their own characters as well. They were asked to come up with a name, an age, a pet and something the character was afraid of. There were some fabulous characters coming together by the end of the session and the pupils were learning to add more descriptive language to describe their new creations.

To accompany the visit we now have a new ‘Historic Fiction’ section with some fantastic examples to choose from. Watch this space for some exciting activities after Easter to help students delve into the history of WW2 through the library as well.

To round off our World Book Day events we also had a scavenger hunt around the library looking for hidden letters to spell the secret word.

Finally we have a brand new display board up at All Saints as well with some popular titles to choose from. With lots of new books coming into the library this month there is plenty for all readers to choose from on the shelves.

 

January Roundup

It has been a busy start to the year at Hyndland Secondary’s Library. We’ve had lots of new books in the library to begin the year with. Naturally the latest in the Heartstopper series flying off he shelves as soon as they arrived.

The 27th January also marked Holocaust Memorial Day where we remember the horrific events that occurred in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. There are some important books to read on the subject in the display put together by librarian, Cat McGlinn. These include Once by Morris Gleitzman, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne and of coarse Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. They are all essential reading for this topic.

Friday’s at Hyndland have a new librarian, Linda, and with her some brand new library assistants have volunteered to help! Charlotte, Aidyn, Sania and Joshua are busy learning how the library works. In their short time as new library assistants they have been learning where to return books on the shelves, checking in and out books, and even adding new books to the library catalogue. Thanks for all your hard work!

Library Assistant, Charlotte, also shares with us her favourite facts from the non-fiction section as well.

Fatal Boredom Button

“College students in a 2014 experiment simply had to sit in a room alone and entertain themselves for 15 minutes. To make the task more challenging, the students were denied the devices that many people rely on for personal entertainment. No mobile phone, computer or book. Not even pen and paper. In fact, the research team – led by Timothy Wilson at the University of Charlottesville – offered the students only one possible means of distraction. They were given access to a button, and warned that pushing it would deliver a painful electric shock.”

“Two-thirds of the men in the experiment, and one-quarter of the women, chose to press the button. One man did so 190 times”

Excerpt from Cutting Edge Science by Colin Barras available to borrow from the library.

Finally, Tuesday’s Library Club enjoyed some cosy days reading in the library over January – the best way to get through the longest month of the year!

 

 

New Year, New Stock

Winter is the best time to curl up with a new book and we have plenty of those to dig into at All Saint’s Library.

Our Library Assistants have been hard at work putting together their own displays and recommendations. They have also been busy helping sort out the new stock (with first dibs on the best titles of coarse). This is their newest display of pupil picks:

The most requested books here are always Manga with One Piece and One Punch Man without a doubt being the most popular titles of the month. Other favourites include dystopian adventures, and anything football related. Here are a few of the top picks from the library this month:

Festive Fun at All Saints

It’s been a busy term here at All Saints and the library has been buzzing.

Our S1 Library Assistants made sure the Library was looking sparkly for the festive season by decorating the Christmas tree and helping find all the Christmassy books on the shelves.

 

We also had the S6 Wellbeing ambassadors with Ms Atkinson arranging a Christmas film for the S1’s, S2’s and S3’s with Elf, The Grinch and Home Alone showing in the library throughout last week.

And to finish off a busy term and an especially busy month we were lucky to have storyteller Joanne Marr into the library where she talked about her experience of storytelling and how she uses oral stories with different groups. She spun tales of dragons and princess, inter-weaved with Scottish Folklore and themes of anti-racism and discrimination. This visit ties into a project earlier in the year where students wrote their own book and the S3’s were keen to hear about the different ways in which storytelling can be used to engage audiences and cover important themes. Some fantastic questions from the group and a great experience for everyone.