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Happy Holidays, from JPA Library

A brief December update:

We’ve finally reached the winter holiday, and we can now all rest, relax (and obviously read) for a couple weeks. Our pupils have worked hard and been incredibly creative this last month, with pupils trying out a variety of Christmas paper crafts, such as baubles, crackers, snowflakes, trees and stars – all of which have helped to decorate our wonderful “Book-mas” tree! There have also been lots of senior pupils studying hard in the library for their upcoming prelim – good luck to all those hard workers!

Our clubs have also been having lots of fun and games this month, with plenty of games of hangman and pictionary on comic and fairy tale themes. Our comic club also introduced Miss West (the librarian (me)) to Blookit and have had a great time playing games and quizzes with comic and manga characters. I’m looking forward to all our clubs gathering again in the new year, and hopefully with more clubs to come!

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year!

JPA Library – November Update

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We’ve had an especially bookish month in the library! Our clubs have been having lots of fun and showing off their skills, we got excited about COP26, and most of all we celebrated Book Week Scotland!

Book Week Scotland

For BWS this year, the library ran a ‘Wee Stories’ competition, and challenged pupils to submit short stories of no more than 50 words to the school library newsletter, Bookmarked. Here are some of our top entries:

I woke up from a nightmare, dreaming that I got killed in my sleep, sweat dripping from my forehead. I tried to control my breathing. “But it felt so real”. My hands shake as I get up from my bed. I stretch, look down and see my cold, dead body. – Murron, S3

I opened my eyes to find myself in the middle of the road. There was no cars coming my way. The traffic lights were rusty. The shop windows were broken. The world seemed quiet and empty. The machine worked but they all left. How was I going to go back? – Flora, S3

One cold winter night I’m walking my cat out on a lead until she saw a squirrel and she wanted to eat it but I didn’t let her off the lead so she got mad and scratched me and then I turned into Catman! – Dylan, S3

You can check out all the best Wee Stories from our pupils in the December issue of Bookmarked at the end of this post. All pupils who submitted a story were entered into a raffle to win a £10 National Book Token!

Clubs Update

Our clubs have been having lots of fun this month, especially during Book Week Scotland, when our Big Book Quiz returned, geared specifically to our Comic Club and EAL Book Clubs.

The Comic Club took part in the Big Comic Book Quiz, and our members were quizzed on their knowledge of comics, graphic novels and manga, with rounds about book covers, characters, movie & TV adaptations, blurbs and emoji-titles. It was a fierce competition, our members are very knowledgeable about their favourite books! Congratulations go to this great S1 pupil, who not only won this quiz, but also emerged victorious of an even harder manga quiz later in the month!

Our EAL Book Club also had their own quiz, the Big Fairy Tale Book Quiz, inspired by our Project Cinderella! This quiz involved Disney characters, modern fairy tale adaptations, different versions of Cinderella, translating fairy tale titles from their original languages and finally a scavenger hunt through the library to find Cinderella! Once again, a very close competition between our pupils. This month we have also continued to read and discuss Cinderella stories – the current theory from the group is that Cinderella is actually a witch! [This project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund].

COP26

The school was buzzing with talk of COP26 and fighting climate change, and in the library we helped to encourage these discussions! We have posters suggesting 2 minute challenges for staff and pupils to try and become more eco-friendly, and we had this massive display of books on climate change and sustainable living available to borrow throughout the conference (and beyond!), helping all our curious pupils to understand what was happening and why.

Want to see what’s coming up in December? Check out the latest issue of Bookmarked, the JPA Library Newsletter, at this link.

JPA Library – October Update

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Hello again from the John Paul Academy Library!

In October, we were delighted to receive our prize from the Penguin Books Lit In Colour Book Giveaway! The library has received an incredible donation of over 100 books written by authors of colour to help diversify our collection and inspire our pupils and staff. These books are now on display in the library and available for our staff and pupils to borrow. Pupils have already started borrowing some of the YA fiction, and Michelle Obama’s biography has been incredibly popular!

Our comic club have been talking about all their favourite graphic novels and manga, and have made posters to advertise their favourites to the rest of the school. Here’s one for Hilda and the Troll, which was bought for the library after our shopping session in September. Since starting the club, our group has read over 20 books!

Our S3 EAL Book Club has made some good progress with Project Cinderella. We’ve finished the classic Perrault version that inspired the Disney animated classic, and moved on to ‘The Cat Cinderella’ by Giambattista Basile, considered to be the first written version of the story from Italy in 1634. This one is very different from the famous Disney version, as Cinderella commits a terrible crime to start, and then is faced with not 2 but 6 stepsisters! Our club members are definitely intrigued by the prospect of creating a villainous Cinderella story… [This project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund].

In November we have Book Week Scotland to look forward to, which will involve displays, a ‘Wee Story’ competition, games and more! For this and everything else coming in November, check out the latest edition of Bookmarked, our school library newsletter.

Happy reading from Miss West

JPA Library – September Update

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It’s been a fun start to the year in the library at John Paul Academy. The library is open again for pupils to borrow books after months of lockdowns and restrictions. The new S1 cohort have loved coming to the library to check out books, with hundreds of books borrowed since we returned to school after the summer holidays!

We have lots of very enthusiastic readers in the new S1 group and it’s great to see them in the library every day picking out new books to read. They are especially fond of our manga collection, and have put in several requests for more – keep your eyes peeled for new titles coming soon!

Our S3 EAL Book Club, every Wednesday at lunchtime, has just begun Project Cinderella! Every week our club will read a different version of the Cinderella story, taken from different times and places. Once we’ve finished, we’re going to write our own version of the story! We started this month with Charles Perrault’s classic version of the story, famous for the Disney animation. Watch this space to see the club progress, and ideas for our own version of the story! [This project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund].

The library has also started up a new Comic Club, for fans of comics, graphic novels and especially manga! Our new comic club members have had a library takeover, helping to choose new comics, graphic novels and manga to buy for the library, and have created this fantastic display with some of their favourite options for their fellow pupils to borrow! Some of their notes included “This book is really interesting” and “Join our comic club for awesome books like these!”. Our club meets every Monday at lunchtime, and is open for more members to join in!

Pupils have also been getting creative with our new Craft Cart! So far pupils have tried their hand at paper cranes and origami bookmarks, as well as creating and drawing their own posters and characters.

If you want to see what’s coming up in October, then check out Bookmarked, the JPA Library newsletter, at this link.

Thanks for reading, and watch this space for future updates!

Library events: Hobbit Day Celebration

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Hello!

This year our great Library Team will host a bookish event every month.

The first planned was Hobbit Day Celebration on Wednesday, 22nd September.

Each library assistants has helped to make it a great success:

Muhammed, Abdul, Samarin, and Rio have wonderfully pulled together a book display, to decorate the library, but also to suggest their favourite fantasy books.
Eilidh, Abigail and Nathan have planned the activities.
Maria has drawn a brilliant event poster to spread across the school.

On the event day,in small teams we have solved Gollum’s riddles, looking for clues around the library, and completing a related crossword. We were very busy, but it was lovely to see so many young people adventuring in a new book genre, socializing and having fun.

Here are our event winners!

Do not worry, though, as we are already working on the next event!

Spring in Smithycroft Secondary School Library

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In May, we were very lucky to be part of STEM Equals project, supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

The project started with our 3 researchers visiting from the University of Strathclyde– Lauren, Atimati and Richard introducing themselves and talking about their life as students of Biomedical Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Physics.

Our S1 class compared Paisley’s annual rainfall data and explored how this data is relevant for understanding climate change with the help of researchers. Pupils drew graphs and looked for weather patterns and trends. We talked about who can be a scientist (everyone!) and what is Citizen Science.

Pupils did two experiments – identifying plastics and plant water sensor using micro:bits.

Lastly, our S1 pupils got a remote visit from Gill Lewis, who is a children’s author, vet and wildlife enthusiast. She wrote over 20 books about animals and environmental issues and many pupils were already familiar with her books, especially White Dolphin. In her video, Gill explained why books are important, why arts are important to science and even taught us to speak Gorilla!

The school library received almost 50 new books (thank you SLIC and Miss Clarke, a school librarian from All Saints Secondary School and Lochend Community High School!) and we created a new display to tie in with the project.

Jules Scheele (they/them) are a Glasgow-based illustrator, comics artist and graphic facilitator whose art focuses strongly on mental health, queerness, activism and community. They created many personal zines, but most notably illustrated books Queer: A Graphic History, Gender: A Graphic Guide and Sexuality: A Graphic Guide.

Jules recorded a video talk for our S3 pupils and school LGBT+ club, where they talked about the history of zines, their journey to becoming an illustrator, showed us how to make a simple zine by using only A4 paper and scissors and answered pupils’ questions that were everything from “Who do you hope to reach with your art?” to “What advice would you give to your teenage self”.

Smithycroft Library won a Toppsta competition for the best display using new Angie Thomas’ book Concrete Rose and won two more copies of the book! I can’t wait for pupils to read this prequel to the bestselling book The Hate U Give and tell me what they think!

Thank you everyone for this school year and see you in the next one! 🙂

Holyrood Library – Summer Term

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Thank you Helpers!

Here’s a round up of some of the fun we’ve had in May/ June:

Most days start with a “Good Morning” on library Teams. We check in with each other and make sure everyone is having a good day.

We enjoyed fun quizzes for ‘Earth Day’, and ‘Oceans Day’, finding out which animals each of us resembles!

On Empathy Day we chatted about empathy and how we can look out for each other. We put up a book display of Self-help books, and recommended our favourite authors.

“I recommend self-help books because it does a lot of good for my mental health and self-esteem. I really like the author Fearne Cotton. She uses examples that I can relate to” (S3 Pupil)

We made a Book display for Euro 2021, and prepared books to give to our visiting P7 pupils.

Our Library Helpers have been fantastic, whether helping with book displays, activities, or just chilling out with friends,

Thank you so much to everyone who has borrowed books, helped out either in person or on library Teams or simply just been there for company. Thanks also to Laraib and Fiza our Duke of Edinburgh helpers. You have all been amazing!

Can’t wait to see everyone next year and have even more fun.

Bon Voyage!

3 books to read during Refugee Week

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In June we celebrate Refugee Week (14-20 June 2021), Refugee Festival Scotland (14-20 June 2021) and World Refugee Day (20 June).

Here are 3 books I recommend everyone to read:

Alpha by Bessora and Stephane Barroux, Graphic Novel

Alpha tells a story of a man, who flees his home country in search of his wife and child, who already left. As he tries to reach France to meet them, he encounters people traffickers, harsh conditions in refugee camps and people desperately trying to cross the sea in overcrowded and dangerous boats.

The journey that would take few hours on a plane, can take months or even years if you are a refugee. The illustrations are mostly black and grey, portraying the journey as never ending and hopeless.

You can watch Sarah Ardizzone (translator) and Bessora (author) talk about Alpha here.

Boy, Everywhere by A.M. Dassu, Fiction

This book is about Sami, a 13 year old boy living in Damascus with his parents and sister. After the local mall is bombed, his family decides they can no longer stay in Syria. Together they embark on a long journey through countries and continents, hoping to reach and find a new home in England.

Boy, Everywhere was included in 2021 Read for Empathy collection.
You can watch A.M. Dassu speak about empathy in this video.

Forced to Flee: Refugee Children Drawing on their Experiences, Non-fiction

Force to Flee is a collection of refugee children’s stories and drawings, focusing on children from Syria, South Sudan and Central America. The book describes a political situation in these places and explains why so many people try to flee them. It also includes a great list of additional resources for further reading.

None of these books are easy to read. They are heartbreaking, but powerful and important. You can find all these book in the Empathy display in the school library.

Celebrating our different cultures

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Hello readers,

April has marked the beginning of our EAL Reading project, supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund. We are one of the many Glasgow school libraries taking part, guided by the wonderful Ms DeLeavey – librarian at St Margaret Mary Secondary School and Shawlands Academy – who has tirelessly been working on it.

As school librarians we have also taken part diverse and very informative training by different stakeholders, such as the Glasgow City Council EAL Unit and the Scottish Refugee Library. This solid basis, and the support of Mr Gibson – Knightswood Secondary School EAL teacher – has given Ms Spaltro the right incentive to start the reading club with a group of S2 pupils. But also a multicultural club, ‘Culture Vulture’, co-lead with Miss Di Rollo, German and Spanish teacher.

Since April, the group has largely grown and while we have been all been improving our English – included the librarian – we have also learnt a lot about each other’s cultures; while reading ‘Eagle Warrior’ by Gill Lewis. A great reading for those who seek to know more about Scottish culture and countryside.

Our weekly schedule looks like this: reading group on Wednesdays, and Culture Vulture on Thursdays at lunch, open to everyone. The topics of the club meetings have been: favourite place in Glasgow, different idioms compared, and Fashion in different countries.

Thus far, the pupils’ commitment has been outstanding, but this was only a small part of the whole project. Stay tuned to know what’s boiling in the pot – as we say in Italy!

We’re back!

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Hi there! The blog has been a bit quiet lately as we have been busy producing a shiny new newsletter. Every month, we will be featuring some of the best the library at St. Andrew’s has to offer plus book reviews, events and much much more. Follow the link here for the March edition and here for the April/May edition. We have already had some pupils coming forward to contribute to next months’ edition but we are always looking for more! Email me on gw19mcgregormark@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk if you are interested.

Our service will be limited over the coming weeks due to assessments taking place in the library which will make browsing very difficult, if not very close to impossible. But fear not! We still have a click and collect service! Look out for the QR codes around the school or follow this link and fill out a form!

Also, to keep up to date with the very latest goings on in the library, follow us on Twitter! @standrew_schlib