Tag Archives: creative writing

Special guests at Holyrood

We love having visitors to the School Library. In December, we welcomed poet Tawona Sithole who led a creative writing workshop for S1/S2, involving music, games, drama- with some amazing acting skills on show, and writing our own stories.

Our young writers were very inspired, and supported each other by listening attentively as each group read their story out to the audience. Everyone had a great time, and we hope to see Tawona for another visit sometime soon.

This event was supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

We continue to enjoy our Writing for Fun lunchtime club. Our new theme for January is poetry and we hope to write some poems about ‘things that make us happy’.

This week, Fiona Haddow from the Mitchell Library visited us to lead a Focus Group. We looked through a selection of books she had brought, and chatted about which authors we would most like to meet. Our young people felt very honoured to have this chance, as Fiona will use these opinions to help shape the programme for the ‘Wee Write’ Book Festival. This is a brilliant celebration of reading, where Glasgow Libraries brings authors directly into schools, and also holds events, including Family days, at the Mitchell Library.

Well done to our S2/S3 Focus Group. We really enjoyed speaking to Fiona, hearing about Wee Write, and everyone loved their thank you gifts of books.

End of term fun, Holyrood Library

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The holidays are coming – time to celebrate the work of our amazing Library volunteers before we head off for a well-earned rest. They’ve worked tirelessly to promote reading and make the library a friendly and welcoming place. Whatever you need, the library helpers will be there for you!

Senior helper evaluating books to keep

R. in S5 has used her I.T skills to master the library management system (Spark) and now adds in new stock, can search the catalogue, identifies old books to be weeded and comes up with excellent ideas inspired by her love of reading.

Surrounded by books

S6 pupil book recommendations

C. in S6 shares book recommendations, is always up to date with new releases, and is a life-long lover of books. She balances this with a busy S6 schedule, often studying in the library after school.

Our Duke of Edinburgh S3 Volunteers bring fun to our lunchtimes. S1 loved their design a Christmas Tree, & Elf Hat activities. It’s been a privilege to see a special bond grow between S1 and S3. So far 120 pupils in S1 have completed the Christmas Reading Challenge, run in collaboration with Community Libraries.

Lunchtime competition for S1

S1 Helpers at work

S1 Helpers also do a great job, running the issue desk at intervals and lunchtimes, coming up with games & colouring in, and encouraging everyone to borrow books.

S1 pupils enjoyed our special writing competition for Book Week Scotland. This competition was pupil led and inspired by award winning author Lindsay Littleson’s book EuroSpies. The mission was: “Write a job application to become a Spy” Some great entries. Lindsay thought they would definitely get the job!

A last thought as we’re doing our Christmas shopping – good to consider how important books are not only for enjoyment but also for wellbeing and achievement. Research by the Scottish Book Trust explains that “access to books at a young age allows children to flourish” and “Reading for pleasure is the biggest indicator of a child’s future success” https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/articles/the-importance-of-book-ownership

Here’s a lovely personal memory shared by one of our sixth year pupils, about the importance of books.

Well done everyone and Happy Christmas !

Holyrood Library, September Update

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What I’m Reading ….

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

our students are reading ….

Bright by Jessica Jung

Both titles are part of our September theme : East and South East Asian Heritage Month, #ESEAHM celebrating the writing and culture of China, Japan, Korea and other countries in this geographical area.

The book display was created by our S3 Duke of Edinburgh volunteers.

Our Writing for Fun lunchtime club is new this month. Inspired by our White Water Writers project last session, our original group of young writers are now mentoring S1 pupils to enjoy creative writing. They chose fun writing prompts including “Pretend you’re a toothbrush”.

We had a brilliant time. The mentors are busy making plans for next month, including a new theme, and a Competition.

Well done everyone. Some of our S1 and S2 pupils’ creative writing, and illustrations :

Try something new

Thanks to Adam for bringing in a favourite book for me to try. As I’m not usually a fan of Sci-fi/ Fantasy, I’m really enjoying reading a new genre. Happy reading everyone.

Children of Time

The #Rood Reads Library Update

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For end of term, our Reading Schools Committee held a celebration event, and chose their highlights of the year:

Fatima, S3 loved the visit from Nadine Aisha Jassatt. Nadine read a poem from ‘Let Me Tell You This’ and told us about her brand-new book ‘The Stories Grandma Forgot’. We shared lots of different words in different World languages, and thought about how to use these in our own poems.

Mehreen, S3 has enjoyed writing about books and sharing book recommendations. Here’s our display to celebrate Eid.

Sam likes chilling out in the Library (me too!). The group has lots of fun together, like the Book Oscars at Easter time, and choosing a book from the rewards vending machine.

Everyone agreed that Zine Club, run by Ailbhe from Glasgow Zine Library was brilliant. “We loved the zine making”.

S1 enjoyed meeting Maisie Chan, and learning about the importance of diversity in books. This was part of the YA-ldi Glasgow Schools’ Book Awards.

the Duke of Edinburgh library volunteers did excellent work keeping the book displays up to date, and helping to run the library at lunchtimes.

International Women’s Day

12 of our young people wrote a novel together as part of the White Water Writers’ Project. An amazing achievement. We celebrated in style with a Book Launch party for parents, friends and teachers.

What a year! So much fun. Have a wonderful holiday, and join us for more reading adventures in August.

Reading Highlights at Holyrood

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We hope you enjoy our reading highlights from December/ January. Huge thank you to our visitors, and also to the wonderful Library Helpers and young people for taking part!

Miss Brown’s S2 enjoyed a drawing workshop with Neil Slorance. We were inspired to hear about Neil’s early comics, love of drawing, travelogues and astronomy, and the brilliant graphic novels ‘Dungeon Fun’, and Doctor Who. We learned how to draw faces, adding features to create expressions, and even had a shot at drawing our own comic strips, collaboratively with classmates.

This event was funded by the School Library Improvement Fund.

Also in January, we welcomed author Manjeet Mann, Clare from Refuweegee, and Fraser, Thomas and Clara from the Scottish Book Trust. This event was part of a Scottish Friendly Book Tour. This workshop was amazing! We heard about Manjeet’s journey as a writer, enjoyed readings from her verse novels ‘Run Rebel’, and ‘The Crossing’, tried some free-writing exercises, shared our work to the audience, had a Q. & A. So much great feedback :

“I loved the part when we had activities to do with a famous author. It inspired me to be more imaginative and to write more” Haya (S2)

“S2 are currently looking at equality and empowerment, and this event helped to bring what we had been talking about in class to life. The pupil interaction (writing task) was brilliant. All round super event!” Mrs Ford, PT Pupil Voice

Also impressive was the care and effort put in by all young people and staff to provide a warm welcome. An outstanding day, happy memories were made, and pupils left inspired!

In December, we had visits from Ailbhe and Martha, from Glasgow Zine Library. We loved making our own zines at these fun workshops. GZL is an amazing local resource, and we are very grateful to Ailbhe for setting up links with us and working with our wonderful Equalities Alliance and Anti-Racist groups.

Also in December, over 200 S1 pupils completed the Glasgow Libraries Christmas Reading Challenge and received these lovely certificates. Well done everyone.

Our pupil helpers have been busy creating displays. Here is a selection:

World Hijab Day

Holocaust Memorial Day

Burns Day Poetry

The Reading Schools Committee is back in action. We enjoyed a Christmas party, put together a list of favourite books to read for Christmas and we’re now getting to grips with the YAldi shortlist. YAldi – Glasgow School Libraries’ Book Award – is a new event in the reading calendar, organised by Ms DeLeavey and Ms Sferrazzo 😊. We are looking forward to interviewing Ann Sei Lin via e-mail (what an amazing opportunity)! and voting for our favourite book in April.

Ann Sei Lin

Book Reviews Ending on a high note, our keen readers are always happy to share their book reviews. We hope that these will help you find a book that you will love. Happy Reading !

The Night Circus by Erin Morgensten “I really loved this book. It’s the definition of a fantasy book. It’s so magical and really transports you to another world. Definitely my favourite book.” Isha, S4

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell “Beautifully written and full of historical detail. Deeply moving; I would recommend this book” Ms Blackburn

Holyrood School Library, Summer update (3)

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Visit from Emily Ilett

Summer term was very different from usual, with pupils and staff doing fantastic work in lockdown. Many pupils have been using Glasgow Life e-resources such as BorrowBox , for e-books and audio-books, and Freegal for music streaming. However, nothing can quite replace the fun of real author coming to visit you, so we decided to get help from the best of the best : Emily Ilett, award winning local author, in a remote LiveLit event supported by the Scottish Book Trust!

Emily had already been out to visit Holyrood pupils, and gave a brilliant talk to Miss Sutherland’s S1 class back in March for World Book Day

We learned about one of Emily’s favourite subjects – ‘Sea animals’, and how she used her love of animals and conservation as inspiration for her book ‘The Girl Who Lost Her Shadow’.

The challenge for our remote event in June was, with the school building closed, and no physical contact – how could we get Emily to the pupils, so we could have fun, hear all of her great tips for writing, and do a pupil Q & A? The answer was …..an author video, made especially for Holyrood pupils. In it Emily reads a wonderful short story ‘Hello Neighbour’ which she wrote for lockdown (it’s very funny, especially the bit about the wasps’ nest….you’ll have to listen and I bet it will make you laugh!). She also answered terrific questions from Zoya, Nga and Augustina; and set a competition for us. The competition is now closed for the summer, but we might open it again next term – so you could have a wee practice if you’re bored during the holidays!

You can watch Emily’s video here. Just scan the QR code with your I-pad. (Big thanks to Mrs. Gunn for explaining to me how to do this). See – everyone is learning new skills here – pupils/ teachers/ librarian. You never stop learning, and it’s exciting!

There was a tight deadline to get competition entries in by the end of term, many of you rose to the challenge with magnificent entries. Winners were : Ella S1, Laraib and Eseosa (S2), and Augustina (S3). Emily was highly impressed by the entries. Great work from everyone who entered. We may try to make the winning entries into a short story collection for you to read. In the meantime, you can read ‘Hello Neighbour’, and more short stories and poems in this fantastic anthology by Cranachan publishing:

Read ‘Stay at Home’ here

Great fun for pupils, and includes resources for teachers!

See how many authors you already recognise, and you will also discover new favourite authors to enjoy. We will (hopefully) have many new books in the Library by the time you return to school.

Holyrood School Library, Spring update (1)

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While we’re on an early spring break, it’s time to remember some of the fun things we’ve achieved this session. In November, during Book Week Scotland, we enjoyed a feast of activities including:

Ms Longo’s ‘Scavenger Hunt’ round the Library
a very well attended Lunchtime Book Quiz,
Visit from poet and Creative Writing Group leader – John Munro, who inspired pupils with great advice for getting started with writing.

John led 2 writing sessions, one for some lucky S1 classes in the Library. The other was for the whole S2 Year group! We had to take over the Fuel Zone, and John got everyone started with the topic ‘What would you put on your CV to get the job of a ninja warrior’. Much enthusiastic and very creative writing took place!

Throughout the week, Library helpers promoted our Prize Draw, which was enjoyed by everyone who borrowed, returned or renewed a book in the Library during Book Week Scotland.

We also highlighted some exciting pupil recommended titles including:

Robert Muchamore CHERUB series, and Taran Matharu ‘The Summoner’ series.

We look forward to Book Week Scotland in November 2020.

Useful websites :

https://www.scottishbooktrust.com

https://literacytrust.org.uk/

https://www.voluntaryarts.org/introducing-the-gorbals-writing-group

Creative Writing Competition Winner

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Just a dandy and his octopus, nothing to see here.

Last month, in the Library’s first lockdown competition, I posted the photo to the right on all the library’s social media accounts, and on Lourdes Secondary’s pupils’ Teams, and invited pupils to create a 500 word story, a 10 line poem, a 10 minute maximum short film, or a panel of maximum 10 panels.

There were some wonderfully creative responses, in the form of short stories and poems. Each entry was very original and imaginative, and I was impressed by the quality of the writing submitted. But one entry stood out, not just because the story was so imaginative, but also because it was an unusual and clearly well-thought out response to the picture. The author herself described her thoughts thus:

I decided to write a story using the image. When I saw the image, I thought of Charlie and the chocolate factory, so I incorporated the theme of sweets. I also took the side theme of poverty and how it restricts people.

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Lourdes Library in the time of Coronavirus

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Miss O’Neill, checking in! It’s Day 2 of working from home. The library is now a lot smaller than it used to be, physically, based as it is at my kitchen table (close to the food and coffee). But that doesn’t mean that you won’t have access to lots of resources and support while the main school library and your local community libraries are closed. Continue reading →