Well done to all pupils and staff for making it through the year, and through the last difficult few months! You all deserve a great summer holiday! To all the pupils leaving this year, I’m so sorry not to have seen you to say goodbye properly, but I wish you all the best for the future – I’m sure you’ll all do great things and have wonderful lives. The important thing to do is to relax and enjoy this next stage of your life.

Because lockdown is continuing in some form, although it’s being gradually reduced, the library will remain open to you in its current virtual form over the holidays. Opening hours are 9am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. This may change sometimes, if I’m taking a few days off or have school librarians meetings, but I will post it on your Teams and on the library’s social media if the library will be closed for a day or more.

You can contact Miss O’Neill by email at gw16oneilkathleenmar@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk, on your Teams, and through the library social media. The Twitter handle is @liblourdes and the Instagram handle is @lourdeslibrary. You can also follow the library mascot, Boba Felephant, on Instagram at @bobafelephant.

School Clubs

The Role-Playing Games Club will continue throughout the summer, with a new group for the new S1 pupils starting. There will also be a Summer Reading Challenge-themed programme running for the new S1 pupils, starting on Monday 29 June. S1s, and their younger family members, can register to take part in the official Summer Reading Challenge activities as well; the theme this year is the Silly Squad, so we can look forward to a daft summer!

If there is enough interest from pupils, I’m thinking about setting up a Storytelling Club to run once a fortnight over the summer, and to continue it once school opens again in August. It won’t only be creative writing, but also comics, films, coding, and other media that you would like to use. Please get in touch by email if you would like to be part of it.

The Online Library

You can access a range of resources free via Glasgow Libraries: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/online-library. All you need is your library card number and PIN – if you don’t know these, please contact me. Note: new S1 pupils, your cards are not yet ready, but I will let you know once you are all registered. If you have a Glasgow community libraries card, you can use that.

• eBooks: use Overdrive and Borrowbox.
• Audiobooks: use Overdrive, Borrowbox, and RB Digital
• eMagazines: use RB Digital
• eMusic: use Freegal

There is a great range of resources to help you with study, research into your hobbies, business ideas, family history, and more. If you’re learning to drive, you can practice for the theory test. These are available here: https://libcat.csglasgow.org/web/arena/eresources. You can also access user guides to the various resources on this page, but please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about any of these resources.

I look forward to seeing you all in school in August. I don’t know yet what form the library will take. If we still need to socially distance, you will be able to request library books which will be delivered to you, and there will be books available in your English classroom. I will also be giving you book recommendations. I’ll keep you updated here on the blog, with the links to any blog posts being added to your Teams, and all information shared on library social media.

FInally – again – I, along with Boba Felephant, Albert von Einskull, and library kitten Mad Madame Mim, hope that you enjoy your holidays! Surely nobody can have as bad a holiday as Sweeney Todd being taken to the beach by Mrs Lovett (tee hee).