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!

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.

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:

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. 

The Tuesday Chill Out Club is back. A quiet space at lunchtime for reading (with beanbags and cushions!), mindfulness colouring, playing chess, studying, chilling out and winding down.

It will now be co-run by my S6 helpers; Amber, Amanda and Reagan.

We’ve decided to open it up to all year groups so that seniors have a quiet space to study in the run up to exams.

A busy few weeks in All Saints Library!

The Chessnuts Chess Club has started on Mondays at lunchtime. We’ve had a great turn out of players, some new to the game and some improving their skills and helping out the others.

We received lots of new fiction and non-fiction stock as well. A packed New Books display.

We are celebrating Black History Month with our 3 displays of amazing titles.

Our senior helpers Amber and Reagan have been hard at work; categorising books by genre, putting up our Halloween display and starting our new lunchtime book club on Tuesdays (with Amanda).

There were a plethora of activities running across departments for our BGE Health & Wellbeing Festival in All Saints.

We had a chill out room in the library with lots of bookish activities to choose from; origami bookmarks, puzzles & games, beanbag and cushion reading corner and mindfulness colouring, among others.

In March we had a visit from the Belfast-based Glaswegian poet Charles Lang. The S1 and S2 classes who took part in the workshops  with Charles had a great time composing their own poems based on the theme of ‘home’.  See below for Kaspian’s fantastic effort.

Fireplace Encouragement  

by Kaspian Mazerski S1 All Saints Secondary  

Sitting by the fireplace 

So warm and so very bright. 

Every time it crackles, 

It gives me a fright. 

My dog sleeping near in a curled position,  

Watching my brother run along the carpet,  

Making fiction. 

“I love my family” I say, 

Eating bread 

I should get ahead, and be early to bed,  

Fall asleep quick…laying in bed 

Hearing a tick, 

The clock going off, 

The day is over. 

No need to scoff, 

There is always tomorrow 

Go get that book you wanted to borrow, 

Go, do the thing you wanted to do. 

Don’t imagine. 

It’s all up to you. 

We had a fun-packed World Book Day here in All Saints, including a fairy tale escape room, a lunch time quiz and a design a new school library bookmark competition (well done to the winners Manpreet & Love!).

Our Chill Out Tuesday club returned this month. Beanbags, books, chatting with friends, chess, mindfulness colouring and general chilling out. We also received free copies of the Happy Newspaper! 🙂