Smithycroft pupils joined many other people across Scotland and pledged to read for at least 6 minutes on Wednesday 11 May. The campaign aiming to highlight the positive impact reading can have on mental health and wellbeing was a huge success – in the end there was over 450 000 minutes pledges which far exceeded the initial goal! All Smithycroft pupils had an opportunity to read during the first period – I can’t imagine a better way to start a school day! 🙂

S3 pupils got to meet new literary star Ely Percy – their coming of age novel Duck Feet is just about to sell out of the third print run! Ely read from their book and answered questions about writing and publishing. Our very talented pupil Murron, who interviewed Ely for library eMagazine (coming out soon!) got her own copy of Duck Feet with a special dedication from Ely.

Young artists from S1 and S2 had an inspiring session with Metaphrog – the award-winning graphic novelists Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers. Pupils learned about the process of making a comic book, the history of graphic novels and got some useful tips on creating their own characters.

Smithycroft Library and English department are organising a special competition for LGBT History Month this year. By reading and reviewing a book from the library “Read with Pride” display or e-book/audiobook from Libby, you can earn house points and help your house beat the opponents!

Remember to collect a review form and a free bookmark from the Library.

Thanks to everyone who already submitted their review, but don’t worry if you haven’t already – you still have time to earn house points! Deadline is end of March 😊

May the best house (and reader) win!

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.

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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”.

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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! 🙂