All Saints -Chessnuts, New Books, Black History Month, Book Club

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A busy few weeks in All Saints Library!

The Chessnuts Chess Club has started on Mondays at lunchtime. We’ve had a great turn out of players, some new to the game and some improving their skills and helping out the others.

We received lots of new fiction and non-fiction stock as well. A packed New Books display.

We are celebrating Black History Month with our 3 displays of amazing titles.

Our senior helpers Amber and Reagan have been hard at work; categorising books by genre, putting up our Halloween display and starting our new lunchtime book club on Tuesdays (with Amanda).

 

Lochend – Comics, Lattes, Black History Month and LGBTQI+ Safe Space

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It’s been a busy few weeks here in Lochend Library.

We had a visit from the wonderful Neil Slorance who inspired our S2 class to create their own comic characters. This was part of our EAL Reading Group Project which was supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

We are celebrating Black History Month with our displays of non-fiction and fiction. Come and check them out.

The LGBTQI+ safe space is taking place in the library at lunchtime on Fridays. Pop along if you fancy a chat in a welcoming space 🙂

And finally, a big thanks to our senior barista students, Nadine and Aiden, for the two free iced lattes. Delicious!

Photos below:

The epic Birth of the D&D club @St Mungo’s library

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This year I have decided to open a D&D club in the library even if I have no clue what am I doing! I’m a beginner player, never DM…and still don’t get most of the rules ^^

Well despite this very unreliable experience, I just decided to pick a date and time and promoted it during the library inductions for S1, because why not! Fool of me! A COHORT of excited pupils has answered the call (thank you Stranger things!)

So I found players (too many –“) now I just had to figure out how to DM, in like a week. I was doomed…But my lucky star decided to send me on my path, some help.  A member of the staff offered her help to DM!! And another one gave me 20 dice or so for FREE along with some free D&D books!

(Yes I have a pretty amazing lucky star and no I will not exchange her for anything. Lucky stars are individual and meant to be cherished.)

I was finally ready to launch the first D&D club in St Mungo’s!

And because lucky star magic is never too much, she sent me a pupil who wanted to DM!! I have now two D&D groups in the library: one DM by a pupil and another one conducted by a member of the staff and myself for beginners.

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Every Friday at lunch, I close the library for epic and fun adventures created by pupils.

In the meantime, I try to learn on my own and take every piece of advice from librarian colleagues and players:

September 2022 Roundup – Shawlands Academy School Library

The School Library is back and busier than ever! We have a busy itinerary of events planned for this year, so watch this space for more information. Read more to see what we’ve been up to this month:

Inductions: We’ve really enjoyed meeting all the S1s and new pupils as well as reconnecting with the rest of our school community. Over the past few weeks, the School Librarian has been delivering Library and separate Libby inductions to our S1 English classes. Find out more about Libby and the Glasgow Libraries eOffer on the Glasgow Libraries’ website.

Schools of Literature: This year, the School Library is involved with the Schools of programme with a special class on Literature. Our group will read a themed book per month and tie it into crafts and other literacy-based activities. This month we’re reading Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu by the wonderful Glasgow-based author, Maisie Chan. We’ve also been making some top secret treats for our upcoming Pop Up Library stall for International School Library Month in October.

Comics Book Group: We’ve launched a very special book group in collaboration with our wonderful Support for Learning department focusing on comics and video games. Each Friday, our students read Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming by Edward Ross where we discuss past, present and future of video games and gaming culture. Learn more about the importance of video games literacy in the report from the National Literacy Trust: Video games and literacy | National Literacy Trust

Literature Trails: The School Library is working with our Values Ambassadors to create monthly literature trails around school. We select 10 books on a theme and crate informational posters about each book for teachers to display in their classroom windows. This month we chose to promote East and South East Asian Heritage Month and chose a wonderful selection of titles which include:

Hanna Alkaf – The Girl and the Ghost

Maisie Chan – Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths

Sue Pickford aka Sue Cheung – Chinglish

Candy Gourlay– Tall Story

Jenny Han – To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore 

Banana Yoshimoto – Kitchen

Viet Thanh Nguyen – The Sympathiser

Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go

David Yoon – Frankly in Love

Pupil Library Collective: With the overwhelming success of the Pupil Library Committee this year, we’ve expanded our program to continue our journey towards embedding a pupil voice into the Library. Pupils will help select stock, create and deliver events, curate displays and booklists, and help with general light duties in the Library. We’ll be hosting inductions early next month and can be useful for those working towards either their saltire awards, Duke of Edinburgh or simply for work experience.

Publications: Pupils can submit book reviews, art, poetry, or short stories to be published in either the monthly School Library newsletter or the quarterly School Libraries’ eMagazine, Swatch. Access the current and previous issues of Swatch through these links:  Autumn 22 Summer 22, Spring 22, Winter 21, Autumn 21, Summer 21, Spring 21, Winter 20, Autumn 20

Popular Sections: Pupils are loving our new sections and layout too. So far, our most popular sections include:

 #Trending on BookTok: A one stop shop for trending titles on TikTok. If you’re not familiar with the subcommunity on TikTok, we recommend learning more by reading these articles: Wikipedia, The Rise of BookTok by Alison Flood, Guardian

Thrills & Chills: As ever, our Thrills & Chills section remains one of the most popular sections with our pupils. Here, there can find the best Thrillers, Crime, Espionage & Detective, and Horror books including: Friday Nights and Freddy’s, Murder Most Unladylike, Alex Rider, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Graphic Novels & Comics: Our growing collection of new and modern classic comics and graphic novels, including: DC and Marvel universes, Lumberjanes, Adventure Time, Tillie Walden, Raina Telgemeier, Dog Man

Equality & Empowerment: This section blends fiction and nonfiction books together with the theme of human rights and empowering ourselves and others to promote positive, inclusive change. Highlighted titles include: Dear Martin by Nic Stone, Melissa by Alex Gino, I Will Not Be Erased edited by gal-dem, Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World by Burhana Islam, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali, Reya Ahmed, Saffa Khan, Aaliya Jaleel, Deema Alawa, Aghnia Mardiyah, I Am Not A Label: 34 Disabled Artists, Thinkers, Athletes and Activists from Past and Present by Cerrie Burnell, illustrated by Lauren Mark Baldo.

Slice of Life: Is this real life, or is it fantasy? (FIY, it’s real life). Fans of romance and realistic fiction love this bigger and better than ever section filled with books by top authors such as Holly Bourne, SK Ali, Alice Oseman, Simon James Green, Jenny Han, and Camryn Garrett.

Trending: September Booklists

Best New Children’s Books – Topptsa

Bookbug’s Book of the Month – Scottish Book Trust

Books of the Month – Love Reading For Kids

Books of the Month – Scholastic

Books of the Month – Waterstones

Children’s Books Roundup – Guardian

Trending Books – Epic Reads

Literary and Cultural Events – October

1st – 2nd: The Words of war Book Festival (Perth, Scotland)

3-9th: Libraries Week (Scotland)

6th-8th: Ness Book Fest (Inverness, Scotland)

7th-16th: Cheltenham Literature Festival (Cheltenham, England)

8th-9th: Bookmark Book Festival (Blairgowrie, Scotland)

13th– 16th: Berwick Literary Festival (Northumberland)

14th-31st: Scottish International Storytelling Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland)

20th-30th: London Literature Festival (London, England)

27th-30th: Orkney Storytelling Festival (Orkney, Scotland)

29th– Nov 6th: Petworth Festival (West Sussex, England)

Literary Awards & Prizes

Winners: YA Book Prize, Klaus Flugge Prize

Shortlist: Booker Prize

Book Buzz

BBC

Book Riot

Buzzfeed

Epic Reads

The Evening Standard

The Globe and Mail

The Guardian

Huffpost

The New York Times

The Scotsman

The Telegraph

The Times

Times of India

 

 

Summer reading competition

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Over the summer pupils were encouraged to read for pleasure by completing a reading bingo challenge!

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They had to click pictures as evidence and submit them to the library to have a chance to win.

And this year’s winners are…

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Congratulations to both of them!

Picture evidence as a bonus+, taken for “Read to a pet” challenge:

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Back to school, welcoming our new Ukrainian friends!

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Welcome to our school!

St Mungo’s Academy, like many schools in Glasgow, has welcomed new pupils from Ukraine this year.

To help our newcomers to settle in our school the library was part of a “welcome committee”. On the first day, we welcomed the pupils and their families for a morning coffee chat in the library so they can begin to be familiar with the school and meet key staff. We talked about the education system here in the UK and at St Mungo’s, gave them their uniform, and offered them a wee tour of the school along with their new timetable.

For the occasion, the library helpers and S6 pupils got ready a beautiful welcome banner:

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The induction period

The first week their timetable was specially designed to know them, their interest, strength, and talent as well as their English level but most of all it was about nurturing, budding, and befriending.

So we had a lot of ice breaker activities in the library along with music, dance, math, and literacy (classroom language essentials, keywords…) fun classes.

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After this week, they were confident enough to join the mainstream classes.

A few days after something happened in the library during lunch break: pupils were downloading apps to better communicate with their new Ukrainian classmates.

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I wish our newcomers success, to make new friends, and to enjoy their journey in St Mungo’s Academy.

Mrs Kindness

September 11, 2022

New Term

Our focus this term is to enjoy reading! Our new S1 pupils have been fantastic already. This week we’ve held a Playground library at lunchtime, and also plan to celebrate Roald Dahl day.

   

September projects :

  • Led by Mr, McLeod in Social Subjects, we have started our Superhero Readers project, aimed at encouraging our young people to learn more about the World through reading. The new books include both fiction and non-fiction. Our updated Social Subjects section will be decorated with pupil artwork and Superhero signs! (photo shows work in progress).

This hardworking S1 class are examining the books and deciding on headings such as Climate change, Refugees, Racism, Crime, Poverty

  • New book selection and displays will have input from our Rights Respecting School Committee and newly formed pupil Equalities Alliance, to ensure the library is inclusive and welcoming to everyone.
  • Last year we were successful in gaining Reading Schools Silver Accreditation. This year we are going for Gold with the fantastic leadership of Ms Longo and the Reading Schools Committee. Here are some of the Committee, enjoying their well-deserved trophy.

Summer Reading Journey

Everyone loves time for reading during the holidays.  Books (and films) can also help boost tourism.

In June, I visited St. Abbs.  Are you a fan of Marvel Comics and the Avengers movies? In ‘Endgame’ filmed in 2017, St. Abbs beautiful coastline became the location for Thor’s home planet.

In the Visitor Centre you can hold the hammer of Thor, take a quiz, and find out all about the filming.

   

I also visited Rosslyn Chapel . The intricacy and beauty of this building is testimony to the skill of the craftsmen who built it in the 15th century. By taking a guided tour, I learned about the architecture and secrets of Rosslyn, the struggle to preserve the building, and how Dan Brown’s bestseller the Da Vinci Code, came to the rescue, putting Rosslyn Chapel firmly on the tourist map, and raising much needed income.

 

 

The Chapel famously appeared in the 2006 film, with a stellar cast including Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou and Sir Ian McKellen. After a murder in the Louvre Museum, and a frantic chase through London, Professor Langdon and Sophie Neveu finally solve the secret of the Grail after visiting the Chapel’s crypt.

Staff at Holyrood are enthusiastic readers. Mrs Livingstone has very kindly shared one of her favourite books of the summer : The Alice Network. Having a great interest in history, she has also visited Norte Dame de Lorette, the largest French military cemetery. There can be found information and a small memorial to Louise de Bettignies who was the real life founder of the Allies WW1 spy network , (known as the Alice Network in Kate Quinn’s book).

 

Historical fiction can often bring incredible true stories to life, and helps us to understand important figures from the past.

Thank you also to Ms Stevenson, Ms Crawford and Mrs McDonald for recommending books borrowed from the school library that they enjoyed over the Summer. (‘Eleanor Oliphant’ is also one of my favourites).

             

Pupil & staff recommendations are always superb!

 

Khadija, S3 : “The Ms Marvel Comic is sooo good, especially of you are a Marvel fan! You will love the Ms Marvel series on Disney channel too, It is about a Pakistani girl and it is very diverse”.

 

 

 

Zirsh, S6, read many books during the holidays. This one was perfect for summer reading as it was about friendship, and travelling together, very enjoyable.

Have a wonderful Autumn term

 

 

St Mungo’s library- Summer round-up!

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The teachers and staff are back to school meanwhile, the librarian, never really left…

Indeed, I have spend most of the summer working in the library.

You must wonder: “what did she do during this 7 weeks, alone in school, like an wandering ghost?” Well, rather than a ghost, I was more like a busy bee.

The first weeks, I embraced the “dynamic shelving mode”. I placed all the books in facing display making the collection more appealing, accessible, navigable, fun, enjoyable for our readers.

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I created a “Shelf help” section! Fiction & NF books have been selected to help pupils overcome experiences, thoughts and feelings that can be overwhelming. 

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I designed and replaced all the library signage, to make it clearer, more inclusive and practical for our readers:

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I weeded the collection and recycled book jackets making space for new books:

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I received NEW STOCK (hooray!!) which means that I had to catalogue and displayed it:

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I worked with my librarian colleagues on the “Well being for storytelling project” involving mastering very complicated story base games (some of this games have a book rule of +20p!!)

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I followed online webinars and training: 

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Towards the end of the summer break, the library has been involved in the P7 transition programme, offering library activities to the future S1: 

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And ultimately, I created 200+ library cards for the new S1:

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A buzzzy 🐝 indeed 😜

The library is super ready to rock this new school year!