Throughout October we have been recognising the importance of Black History Month. Our Library Assistants did an excellent job creating a new wall display. S5 and 6 pupils headed over to Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery to find out more about how slavery and colonialism have shaped Glasgow. Museum staff delivered a fantastic workshop focusing on their new permanent exhibition “Glasgow – City of Empire”. Thank you for having us!
Our S1 and S2 story groups take place every two weeks in the library. In September we had a new bunch of pupils join, so we made some ‘All about me’ zines to get to know each other. Our S2 group did some poetry craft, making their own patchwork-poems out of quotes from lines of poetry and songs.
This month we had a spooky theme for our sessions- monsters! We learned a bit about the story of Frankenstein (did you know that ‘Frankenstein’ was actually the scientist, not the monster??) and then designed our own monsters. There were some very scary creations! Afterwards we managed to squeeze in a Blooket ‘gold quest’ quiz, which was almost as scary.
This month we welcome 10 new volunteers who want to join the pupil library team. Our new members met their mentors who will help them learn all about being a library assistant and show them the ropes for the next month. Pupils will be learning about how the library is organised, practising customer service skills and helping senior volunteers with projects. They’ll be pros in no time!
We’ve got two spotlight displays this month. On our Black History Month display you’ll find a range of non-fiction books celebrating Black history, culture and important figures. Don’t worry if you’re not a non-fiction fan, there’s also some great fiction books by Black authors.
October is of course Spooky Season. If you’re a fan of all things scary, our Halloween display is perfect for you. It’s full of frightful books, ghoulish horror, mysterious murders and things that go bump in the night.
Happy reading everyone!
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. Castlemilk High School is currently working hard towards getting a Gold award this year. To help raise awareness of pupils rights, every month the library features one book that highlights some articles from the UNCRC. October’s Book-of-the-Month is The curious case of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon, which links to a number of articles including:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other.
Fifteen-year-old Christopher knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he discovers a dead dog on a neighbour’s lawn he decides to solve the mystery and write a detective thriller about it.
As in all good detective stories, however, the more he unearths, the deeper the mystery gets..
This year, the library is excited to host a staff book club! Once a month, members of staff come together to discuss a chosen book in a relaxed and friendly setting.
In our first session, we spent time talking about the kinds of books we enjoy and shared ideas for future reads.
The winning choice was Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. After reading the book, we reconvened to talk about its powerful themes of loss, family, and identity. To balance the emotional depth of the story, we enjoyed some Korean snacks, which tied in beautifully with the book’s cultural elements.
The session was a great success, with everyone enjoying both the conversation and the refreshments. For our next meeting, the group unanimously chose Intermezzo as our next book to explore. We’re all looking forward to another thoughtful discussion!
It’s the end of term and the library is unusually quiet due to the October holidays. In Lochend, flying off the shelves just now is Vampire Diaries. It’s back on TV again, and lots of our students are possibly discovering it for the first time. Full of page turning stories, the books tell of Elena and Stefan and their adventures, being teenage vampires and navigating their strange world – and their relationship ! Don’t go into a cemetery late at night like these teens did – it always ends badly ! Go on, read it for Hallowe’en !
Have you ever wondered what the library looks like when the pupils go on holiday? Tidy I hear you say?! There’s always lots to do, but looking at the library today, it’s splendid and we’re lucky to have such a good library space. 
Here’s our very beautiful section – the fiction shelves – which are arranged by genre to help you find your next read more easily. There are hundreds of books to choose from, and if you’re not sure what to pick the School Librarian will help you. Thank you to the library assistants in schools who often help us tidy up.
Finding your way round the library space can be a bit daunting at first. However as well as our fiction all arranged in one area, our non fiction books are just the same. Spread over a series of shelves, our non-fiction books are arranged by the Dewey Decimal System, that’s how the numbers on the side of the books are arranged. Dewey can seem a bit difficult at first, but don’t worry, that’s another thing the School Librarian can help you with. If you want to learn more about the Dewey Decimal System – here’s a great site to help you out – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuRmTY4UJwQ
Sometimes the best way to get to know the library is by simply walking round a few times and looking at things that catch your eye. Today, I’ll leave you with a post of the seating area and the non-fiction area to give you a fuller view of our fantastic space.
COME TO THE LIBRARY ! We look forward to seeing your soon !
After a lick of paint for the library, what better way to celebrate than rearranging our non-fiction! It should now be easier to find the books you want.
October is now the official month of displays – and we’re not even half way through!
National Poetry Day
Black History Month
And our Halloween display is a work in progress. The poor deflated pumpkin!
Watch this spooooky space….
We’ve introduced a new weekly library poll (thanks to Ms Sferrazzo in Knightswood for the idea!).
October is officially the month of displays in Bellahouston.
National Poetry Day
Black History Month
Some spooooky booooks for Halloween
St Paul’s has been awarded the Scottish Book Trust’s Silver Reading Schools status 🥈 We could not have achieved this without the hard work of our Senior Ambassadors, teachers and staff. The work for Gold starts now! 🥇
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