Access to the School Library is still limited, however we’ve been ensuring pupils can access books through eBook inductions delivered in classrooms and by giving classrooms sets of book boxes.

Check out October’s newsletter, featuring new books in the Library, highlighted books from Libby, author spotlight on Alex Wheatle aka the Brixton Bard, and Black History Month and a Novels in Verse reading list. September’s newsletter is still available on Teams if you’ve missed it.

For Higher and Advanced Higher pupils, remmeber to utilise ProQuest , CORE and  GALE Literature Resource Centre for your assignments.

Welcome back pupils and staff! As we adjust to evolving social distancing guidance, access to the Library is currently limited. It will regularly be reviewed in line with the official guidance.  In the meantime, the Library has been reaching out to pupils in alternative ways to ensure access access to resources to support their learning.

The school library newsletter is back, now more  compact featuring new books, eBooks and eAudiobooks from Libby and BorrowBox, and free music available through Freegal, along with author spotlight, reading lists, reading challenges, and book reviews. The newsletter will be circulated monthly in addition to the new Glasgow School Libraries eMagazine, Swatch, which will be circulated quarterly. Keep a look out for the first issue due shortly.

View the reading list of books featured on Twitter. Don’t miss our Middle Grade Monday books for S1-2 pupils, Senior Tuesdays, What’s Next Wednesdays to find your next read, Nonfiction Thursdays, YA Fridays for S3+, Comic Book Saturday, and Scots Book Sunday featuring titles set in or written by authors living in Scotland. We also run an Author of the Week every Monday and themed rading lists to coincide with cultural/literacy days.

Participatory Spend Books: Throughout October, the Library worked with six S3+4 classes to collect pupil book suggestions that would be used to inform purchasing new stock. This year the Library is prioritising books for reluctant, struggling, and learning readers. This means resourcing titles that will appeal to a broad readership and tastes. The Librarian narrowed the choice of books between two publishers: Barrington Stoke and Badger Learning. Classes were instructed to select the books that they found interesting from both websites. The suggestions were then collated and checked against the Library’s catalogue to ensure books already stocked in the Library were not purchased and therefore making the best use of the allocated budget. The Librarian then bought the most popular books from our supplier.

The books are now available in the Library and a display will be set up for World Book Day in March.

Click Barrington Stoke and Badger Learning Participatory Spend Titles Book List for more information about the books. 

1. Ward 13 by Tommy Donbavand (13)
2. Knife Edge by Robert Swindells (13)
3. Runaway by Ann Evans (11)
4. The Front Room by Michelle Magorian (11)
5. Jon for Short by Malorie Blackman (10)
6. Good Boy by Mal Peet (8)
7. Ghosting by Keith Gray (7)
8. White Eagles by Elizabeth Wein (7)
9. Nightmare by Ann Evans (7)
10. United by Emma Norry (6)
11. The Lane by Iain McLaughlin (6)
12. 2 Die 4 by Nigel Hinton (6)
13. Letting Go by Cat Clarke (6)
14. The Number 7 Shirt by Alan Gibbons (5)
15. Have a Go by Jon Mayhew (5)
16. Copy Cat by Tommy Donbavand (5)
17. Ghost Stadium by Tom Palmer (5)
18. Shadow Girl by Sally Nicholls (4)
19. The Last Days of Archie Maxwell by Annabel Pitcher (4)
20. Final Girl by Tim Collins (4)
21. Wasted by Karen Moncrieffe (3)
22. Tilly’s Promise by Linda Newbery (3)
23. The Tiger on his Back by Bernard Ashley (3)
24. Plague by Echo Freer (3)
25. Kidnap by Tommy Donbavand (3)
26. ME2 by Catherine Bruton (3)
27. Keeper by Ann Evans (2)
28. Home by Tommy Donbavand (2)
29. The Wishing Doll by Beverly Sandford (2)
30. Sitting Target by John Townsend (2)
31. Change by Chitra Soundar (2)
32. Stop by Jenny Spangler (2)
33. Stalker by Tony Lee (2)
34. The Corridor by Mark Wright (2)
35. Johnny Delgado by Kevin Brooks (2)
36. The Night Raid by Caroline Lawrence (2)
37. Second Best Friend by Non Pratt (2)
38. The Family Tree by Non Pratt (2)

Book Group: The Library launched a book group for S2+ pupils who are developing their English skills. We meet weekly in the English Base and read one or two chapters of the book. The title we are reading is Eagle Warrior by Gill Lewis. Set in the Scottish Highlands, this story follows a young girl and her grandmother who are determined to solve the mystery of an illegal poaching trade taking place in the area. Eagle Warrior was chosen because it introduces the pupils to Scottish landscape, language, and wildlife as well as prompting discussion of topics ranging from Scottish law, cuisine, and history.

More about Eagle Warrior: “Bobbie is thrilled that a golden eagle has settled near her family farm. She loves climbing the hills to watch it soar across the sky and stalk its prey. But not everybody shares her feelings for the magnificent bird. When it becomes clear that the eagle is in grave danger, Bobbie is determined to do everything she can to protect it. But she is also facing the threat of being sent away to boarding school, far from everything she knows. Will Bobbie be brave enough to fight for the bird and home that she loves?”

Disco Books:  The Library celebrated Book Week Scotland by throwing a book tasting disco party! Blether was this year’s BWS theme, so pupils were invited to attend a special lunchtime Library club to learn and talk about books. Pupils took a seat along the table. In front of them were books ranging in different genres, lengths, and levels were positioned. The activity involved blasting disco music as pupils handed books around the table. When the music stopped, they had four minutes to read the blub and a section of the book then write what they thought about it, whether or not they’d read it, and who’d they recommend it to. Discoveries were made, conversations were had, and books were shared!

First Minister’s Reading Challenge shelf recommendation cards were distributed to S1 and S2 classes to encourage them to share their favourite book or a title they’d recommend. These were used to inform the books selected for our Book Week Scotland display.

Finally, the Library had a special guest, multi-award winning slam poet Ash Dickinson, to perform and deliver a workshop with one of our S3 classes during Book Week Scotland. Ash is a poet, author, performer, and workshop facilitator who has toured worldwide. Students got the chance to hear some of his performance poetry as well as having a go on creating their own.  

The Scottish Book Trust ran a poll to find out the Nation’s Favourite Scots word. Judges narrowed down 30 words from across Scotland that we displayed on our board outside of the Library to encourage pupils to vote on their favourite. The Librarian worked with S1 pupils who spent their lunch break collecting other students vote.  

National Poetry Day:   National Poetry Day – an annual UK-wide celebration of poetry now on its 25^th year. This year’s theme is ‘Truth’. We’ve handed out FREE official National Poetry Day postcards. As it’s the UNESCO Year of Indigenous Languages, the featured ‘truth’ poems are written in Manx, Cornish, Welsh, Scots, and Gaelic alongside their English translations. We’re also promoting these amazing YA titles written in verse. Download the list here: Books in Verse Reading List

Participatory Workshops:  Over the course of October, the Library worked with various S2-S4 English classes on selecting books for the library. This year’s emphasis is on acquiring more accessible stock that will appeal to a broad range of readers. We targeted publishers Barrington Stoke and Badger Learning websites.

Barrington Stoke is a Scottish company who publishes books written by well-known authors that are suitable for different types of readers using specially designed dyslexia-friendly font and layout as well as printing the text on cream paper to reduce glare. The stories are short length than standard novels and designed for Reading Ages and Interest Ages. The language is specially edited to improve accessibility.

Badger Learning is a UK-based publisher who specialise in shorter length fiction for Young People. Like Barrington Stoke, stories are designed for Reading Ages and Interest Ages. Teen Reads, Two Sides, and YA Reads are different series published by Badger that includes a range of genres and themes.

Classes logged onto the Library’s PCs and were guided through the websites by the Librarian. Pupils were instructed peruse the titles and features of the website then list what books they thought would be good for the Library to stock. The Librarian correlated the data. See February’s post for the results. Pupils found the activity fun and made them feel included in the decision making of the Library

 Bookopoly –St Oswalds: The Library has been working with St Oswald’s English Department as part of the school’s FMRC. Bookopoly has been rolled out to all St Oswald’s pupils. This reading challenge encourages participants to explore genres and non-fiction subjects. Pupils are given their Bookopoly board. Each ‘property’ (or, ‘genre’) is colour coded on the board. Participants must read two books per genre (or one non-fiction book per subject) to collect their genre badge and have their name put into the end of the year prize draw. Further chances to win can be achieved by completing a ‘Chance’ block. This could be a recommendation from the teacher, the Librarian, a book that’s over 300 pages, etc. Participants can record their progress and opinion on the books they’ve read on the back of their Bookopoly board.

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Welcome to St. Margaret Mary’s Library!

The Library is divided into three main sections: Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Senior.  The Fiction section is arranged by genre and the Non-Fiction section is arranged by subjects. This is a result of a pupil survey that was circulated in December 2018. The pupils opted for a Genre-based system so that they could access the stories that interested them.

Action:  Spies and espionage, missions, survival, adventure

Fantasy: Magic & wizardry, supernatural powers and beasts, adventures & quests, myths, legends, folklore, fairy tales

Historical Fiction: Based on true events/people, set in the past, diaries/memoirs. Currently covers stories set in Neolithic period through to the end of WWII

Horror: Ghosts, hauntings, zombies, creepy dolls, dangerous creatures, Gothic stories

Humour: Comedy, diary stories, jokes

Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga: DC/Marvel, Simpsons, Adventure Time, Lumberjanes.  novelizations of chapter books & classics (Alex Rider, Percy Jackson, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pokemon, Blue Exorcist, Fairy Tail

Realistic Fiction: Bullying, discrimination & racism, refugee stories, bereavement, mental and physical health stories, poverty, homelessness, coming-of-age

Relationships: Romance, families, friendships, crushes, first-love, crushes, emotional connections

Science Fiction: Space, time travel, alien beings, dystopian futures, alternate reality/universe, gamer stories

Thriller/Mystery: Detectives, crime, disappearances

Non-Fiction Sections: The Non-Fiction Subject arrangement ties in with the curriculum so that pupils can easily access the information they require for classwork or leisure reading. Sections include History, Society, Arts, Literature, Science and Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Languages, Mental and Physical Health, and World of Work.

Senior Section: The Senior section holds a small but well-stocked range of classics old and new, award-winners, Scottish authors, popular film tie-ins, and best-sellers, non-fiction titles, and adult graphic novels.

Inductions

It was a pleasure getting to meet our new S1 pupils from St Margaret Mary’s as well as classes from St. Oswalds . Classes were introduced to the library and the resources available to them. It turns out we have plenty of keen readers this year who are already making their way through new book series.

Bookopoly

This year, we’re rolling out the Bookpoloy reading challenge for S1s and 2s. This reading challenge encourages participants to explore genres and non-fiction subjects. Pupils are given their Bookopoly board. Each ‘property’ (or, ‘genre’) is colour coded on the board. Participants must read two books per genre (or one non-fiction book per subject) to collect their genre badge and have their name put into the end of the year prize draw. Further chances to win can be achieved by completing a ‘Chance’ block. This could be a recommendation from the teacher, the Librarian, a book that’s over 300 pages, etc. Participants can record their progress and opinion on the books they’ve read on the back of their Bookopoly board.