Category Archives: Eastbank Academy

All go at Eastbank on the shortest month

What a fabulous February we’ve had at Eastbank School Library !  It’s such a short month, but we’ve packed so much into it here at Eastbank.

Spring is coming soon and Mrs Marshall our School Librarian has been spring cleaning – or refreshing – some of our favourite sections of the library. First of all, the senior section is looking so much better.  The shelves have been tidied and books refreshed with some new stock. The display is looking far more contemporary and the addition of the new stock has really brightened the place up.

 

 

 

 

There is even a new area now showing all the senior arrivals.  Hopefully the students don’t get too distracted from their studies by hunting for books with so many great choices displayed in front of them.

And there’s plenty of new books for all the other students to enjoy as well.

These manga were loaned out within 2 days!
2 of the new Black Clover books didn’t even make this photo as they were loaned out the same morning they came in….

Some great new books about beauty and transport also were a welcome addition to our stock.  They look amazing and I’m sure they’ll be popular too.

Following on from January, our staff book club is going from strength to strength.

In the library on the last Tuesday of the month we all gather and talk about all things bookish, and compare reads and recommendations.  We also participate in the entirely voluntary book dare scheme !  It’s a great example for the pupils to see how many staff, across all different subject areas in the school, love reading too.  And the staff really enjoy showing off their, “Ask me what I’m reading?” badges as well.And that’s not all.  Also, we’re really looking forward to World Book Day in March.  The tokens have just arrived !  Watch this space and we’ll tell you what we get up to all through next month.

 

January’s author visit and more in 2024

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Eastbank School Library was super lucky to have Neil Slorance as a visiting author this month.  Neil is an illustrator who has worked with many well known clients such as the BBC, STV, Titan Comics  – and contributed to the official Dr Who comic books.

Our S3 pupils took part in a session where Neil demonstrated how to build characters.   The pupils went on to draw their own ideas with guidance and tips from Neil, finally creating an individual comic strip narrative.  You can see how interested and hard working our pupils were during the session below.  And thanks go to the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature Scheme, who part-funded the session.

 We would love to have Neil back again soon.

It has been such a busy start to 2024 in the library here at Eastbank Academy.   I think with everyone being off school in the Christmas break, they’ve tidied their rooms and brought back lots of books at the start of term.  In one single afternoon, from a tidy desk at midday, the library returns desk looked like this !

But on the other hand, January often is a time when we’re stuck inside as the weather is awful, we can’t get out and play sports or anything – so instead we like to have some of our favourite books to read and enjoy.  I think all these things have combined together and left our football book spinner as bare as last year’s Christmas tree in January !   Pupils – please bring back all the overdue books as soon as you can, especially the football collection, manga and the Wimpy Kid books.  Other pupils are waiting to read them and the bookcase is missing being full.

Last, but by no means least, we have more brilliant books just added to the library bookshelves.  Come and see them soon.  In particular, we are loving Ultra Wild by Steve Mushin.  Even the cover art is amazing !  Ultra Wilde is a series of very detailed comic strips which give wild, extreme and wacky ways we could help to return cities to the wild and combat climate change.  Although lots of fun, it really highlights the problems we have with urban environments co-existing with nature.  Steve’s narrative describes how we got to where we are today in modern cities, and how science around bringing nature back in to cities is possible.  It’s such a fun book as the ideas are taken to the extreme with instructions even on how to put a cannon into your toilet – so much fun! But again, it gives lots of interesting ideas and data on climate change as well, making it really useful.  Get it out on loan today – you will love it.

** For more information on the illustrator Neil Slorance please visit his website – www.neilslorance.com

***And for more information about the Ultra Wild book please see www.ultrawild.org

It’s gonna be a green Christmas at Eastbank Academy Library

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November was so busy in the library, with Book Week Scotland happening in the middle of the month.  Our Reading Leaders were kept busy distributing the free “Adventure” book from the Scottish Book Trust.   Filling up our leaflet holders with extra free copies was a great idea to get books into pupils’ hands.

Great job Amber and Autumn-Bailey !

And Christmas is just around the corner !  Bearing in mind the #greenlibraries campaign and wanting to be as environmentally friendly as possible, our Reading Leaders decided to make most of the Christmas decorations in the library.  They gave up their free time over several breaks and lunchtimes to make some paper chains from damaged books which otherwise would have been thrown away.   And we managed to decorate our tree by sourcing all the tree decorations from a free community site.  Doesn’t it look great !

Happy Christmas and enjoy the festivities from all of our team at Eastbank Academy library.   Enjoy de-stressing using your spare time to read – and don’t forget you can access lots of ebooks on Libby during the holidays.

               

 

All change at Eastbank – library refurbishment

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Come and see our transformation in the Eastbank Academy Library !

Through the summer, Mrs Marshall and her many helpers (thank you librarians and janitorial staff !) worked to transform the library space at Eastbank Academy.   The whole project involved recycling unwanted bookcases from other libraries with little or no money spent.  Some bookcases work so well in a different space and our library has a new lease of life.  At the start of the project, when you decide to change a library space, you have to move lots – and lots, and lots – of books !

   

And when the books are off the shelves, then the shelves are the next thing to dismantle.  What a job that was!  It involved lots of helpers to take down the bookshelves which had been at Eastbank for several years.  Being a green school, we saved some of these shelves for other projects.  Here’s how the shelves looked all piled up after taking the bookcases apart.

One by one we built the new bookcases and got the new spinner book cases into place.   The library definitely was looking quite different now.   The light colours of the bookcases definitely looked brighter and gave us more room to relax while choosing books.

 

In addition, the library was provided with 2 brand new small bookcases which will become home to special collections in the library, such as our Shelf Help selection of books.

 

Finally, this week, the last bookcase arrived to complete our transformation !  It’s looking great and certainly makes the non-fiction more attractive and easier to see.

Overall, the pupils’ feedback has all been very positive, and they enjoy coming into the new space to choose their books. The library now is far more attractive, but also far easier to use.  With a new layout instead of just rows of books and new signage, book borrowing is a better experience.  The library itself is a lovely space to be in.  We are all looking forward to the rest of the school year in our the new library space.

 

 

 

Reader of the Year award

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Omima, Anete, Mason, Nerea, Elise and Rabia from S1 and Mohammed, Emmanuel, Gina, Ciaran and Wilbur from S2 were nominated by their English teachers and the school librarian for the Reader of the Year award. All pupils received books and stickers wrapped and decorated by S6 Literacy Prefects Abby and Carragh who also announced the winners. Congratulations to all avid readers!

 

Heartstopper club

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Me and Mr Brown organised Heartstopper club to celebrate the extremely popular graphic novel series and TV Show. We watched and discussed all episodes of the first season and pupils decorated the library with colouring sheets. We can’t wait for season 2 and will be reading all other Alice Oseman’s books in the meantime!

Wee Write event with Tamsin Winter

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Wee Write festival is an annual festival full of literary events for young people organized by Glasgow Life.

This year, our S1 and S2 pupils got to meet Tamsin Winter, the award-winning author of Being Miss Nobody, Jemima Small Versus the Universe and Girl (In Real Life). Tamsin spoke about her books, social media, body image and mental health. Tamsin even stayed a little longer to answer pupils’ questions (there were many!) and all pupils got a gorgeous signed bookmark.

Readathon

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Our brilliant Literacy Prefects organised a Sponsored Readathon from Friday the 11th of February until Friday the 25th of February. Eastbank Academy pupils and staff read as many books as they could while being sponsored by their friends, families or teachers.

All money collected was donated to MindOut – a charity working to improve the mental health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community.