At Bannerman, we have a new welcoming display outside the library – a book recommendations wall! Pupils can pick up a recommendation slip from the library during their reading period, and when they have finished their book they can write a short review of it. This gives us a chance to showcase the range of books our young readers choose, as well as inspire other pupils take up their peers’ suggestion, and elaborate their thoughts on what they read thus becoming a bit more critical readers.
Ms Bortolato has also started a staff newsletter which will be monthly, with the aim of making school staff aware of what’s new in the wonderful world of children’s literature – plus a different curricular focus each month. This month, we shone a light on the library’s extensive music collection! What will be the next one…?
The S6 pupils above are just some of the senior volunteers who spend at least one period a week helping out in the Library. In addition to their decorating duties, they also worked on selecting books from among the weeded Library stock, so that they can be included in the school’s Christmas hampers which are sent out to families in the local community. The younger Library elves also got involved in this work, prepping the books for being put in the hampers.
There’s a been a bit of experimentation on the Library Christmas Tree front this year! In addition to the more traditional tree (this year with extra elves), we created a second tree out of books in the Library collections. It really was surprising to find just how many green books there were on the Library shelves when I started looking for them. The addition of a few printed baubles and star, and it really does look the part.
