Tag Archives: LGBT

March @ Castlemilk Highschool Library

What’s been happening this month

World Book Day 2024

World Book Day is all about celebrating the magic of storytelling and the joy of reading. It’s a chance for book lovers of all ages come together to share their favourite stories, discover new adventures, and explore the wonderful world of books. Every year during March, you can claim a FREE book from book shops and participating retailers. All you need is a World Book Day token- and there’s lots of available in school. You can collect tokens from your English teacher or the school library until March 31st. Check out what books are available to choose from here.

Equality & Pride @ CHS

The CHS Equalities group provides a welcome space for all LGBTQ+ pupils and allies to meet every Wednesday at lunchtime. The group has been meeting in the library recently, where
they’ve made a new LGBT+ book display, bringing a lovely bit of colour to the shelves. This month everyone has been reading Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. The latest book in the series is in high demand, so if you have to wait, you can try one of Alice Oseman’s other books like Loveless, Solitaire or Radio Silence.

Heartstopper/ Alice Oseman

Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met … until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.

But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is held annually on 8th March. The aim of IWD is to raise awareness for gender equality and challenge stereotypes. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women across the world, both from the past and the present day. These can range from female leaders to pioneers in technology to the women in our everyday lives, like female friends, mothers and grandmothers.

We have two spotlight lists for IWD this month. Our ‘heroines’ list features stories with inspirational women and girls, chosen here for their bravery, conviction,and smarts. Our HERstory list features books about real women who have done amazing things throughout history in science, art, politics and society.

You can view both lists on our School Library Padlet.

New Books

There are loads of new books to choose form this month, particularly if you like a murder or a lol in your stories! Here’s some that we’re most excited to read this month.

The black queen / Jumata Emill

A dark and twisty murder mystery – Ace of Spades meets Riverdale

Catch your death / Ravena Guron

Trapped in a mansion with a murderer and a family of liars – how would you survive? A mind-blowing thriller from the author of THIS BOOK KILLS, perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.

Deadly little scandals / Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Shocking twists, family secrets, a fish-out-of water protagonist and a page-turning mystery combine in Little White Lies and Deadly Little Scandals (The Debutantes Duology) – perfect for fans coming from THE INHERITANCE GAMES series looking for their next addictive read from the Master of YA Mysteries, Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Loki : a bad god’s guide to ruling the world / Louie Stowell

Loki’s third doodle-packed diary in the number one best-selling series.

Worst week ever! : Monday / Emma Amores & Matt Cosgrove

The first book in the hilarious new seven-part highly-illustrated series for fans of Tom Gates, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the Treehouse series.

The totally disastrous school-trip of Lottie Brooks / Katie Kirby

Lottie Brooks continues to navigate the many perils of growing up in this fantastically funny illustrated series, filled with friendship, embarrassing moments and plenty of lols.

Happy reading!

LGBTQ+ History Month @ Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu!

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Hi and welcome to our LGBTQ+ History special!

As you can see, we have displayed some excellent books which deal with LGBT themes or feature leading LGBT characters or protagonists. Some are more ‘obvious’ than others, but we hope there is something for everyone here!

Thanks to the LGBTQ+ group for their suggestions! There were some that even caught the librarian off-guard! We have put up some posters (see below) of some of their recommendations. If you can’t find them in the library, most are available on the Libby app (email gwmcgregormark@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk if you need more info on this!). We are always looking for more recommendations so please get in touch if you have any that haven’t been mentioned here.

The next update will be for World Book Day on March 3rd. We are hoping to have quizzes, giveaways and much more!

February @ St. Andrew’s!

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Hi everyone! Welcome to our first full month of normal service!

This month is LGBT History Month and we have a display of some great books which relate to LGBTQ+ issues or contain LGBTQ+ characters and protagonists. It’s a very eclectic mix and some are more ‘obvious’ than others, but we hope that there is something for everyone. Plus, there is a free rainbow bookmark with every book borrowed!

This month also brings us Languages Week Scotland as well as International Mother Language Day so what better time to set up our new Community Languages Section! We have a number of new books in French, Polish, Italian, Spanish and Arabic (most of which didn’t last long before pupils snapped them up!). We are hoping to have more in the not-so-distant future but we reckon this is a good start! Also special thanks to our EAL group for creating a new multilingual. ‘Welcome’ sign for the library.

3rd March is World Book Day and we have lots of exciting things planned, including a book cover competition, a book swap and much more. Our next update will be a WBD special so keep your eyes pealed!

Pride month

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Happy Pride month to everyone!

To celebrate, this month’s post will be about how the school LGBT+ club and the library have worked together to create a more inclusive space.

The first step was looking at a very inclusive library (and one of Ms Spaltro’s favourite): the Glasgow Women Library. In October Ms McMillan, the librarian and the LGBT+ club visited the GWL guided by the archivist, Nicola Maksymuik and one of the volunteers, May. We saw unique material and art works; but also discussed equality and respect. Very actual, isn’t it? A new hobby was also discovered: badge making! So loved by everyone that Ms McMillan bought a badge maker for our school as well.

This event – and a Glasgow school librarians training – has encouraged us to fill our library with rainbow flags labels. After a library assistants meeting, it was decided to stick a rainbow flag on the spine of every LGBT+ friendly book in the library, to help every reader to find books with LGBT+ themes. It took months to be ready, but the success was immediate. A handful of pupils from the LGBT+ club became our book reviewers: they have been in charge of reading the new books and identifying if they were LGBT+ friendly and suggesting them to the other pupils. Some titles? Giant Days by John Allison, Heartstopper by Alice Oseman and The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta.

February is the LGBT+ history month and has meant for our assistant lots of debates while they have prepared an amazing book display with a rainbow flag donated by the drama department. Not to forget the brilliant badges and informative material that the Creative Industries class has produced and distributed across the school.

The cherry on the top of the cake has been the brilliant event with Dean Atta thanks to the Wee Write! festival. Meanwhile the library team was working on a more inclusive space; Mr Beaton’s S2 class took part in Words that burn project (check the previous post) and Dean Atta was one of the authors involved. The librarian was so impressed that when the opportunity came up, Ms Spaltro wanted the pupils to meet him. Our LGBT+ readers made sure that every pupil who was going to take part in the event had read the Black Flamingo and prior to the event we chatted about the book for weeks. After having listened to the author’s presentation, we discussed coming out, families, integration and Drag Queens. It has been absolutely stunning to see the pupils so engaged and informed. So proud of them and thanks a lot to the Wee Write! Festival team and of course Dean Atta for inspiring us all.

What’s next?

Keep having these bookish conversations that encourage events and activities, keep hosting inspiring authors and support every library user to feel confident and welcome in the library. Last but not least, we are working hard to achieve a bronze LGBT+ chart for our school!

For the events pictures, please check our twitter account: @KsSchoolLibrary

St. Andrew’s February Round-Up

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February has seen a little ‘re-jigging’ of the library lay-out. We have moved our Shelf Help section to the front of the library, making it easier to spot and more accessible for young people and hopefully encourage them to reach out to our excellent selection of literature dealing with mental health issues and exam stress.

In its old spot, we have set up a ‘Gaming and Coding Corner’ which includes game guides, computer game-inspired fiction and various books on coding and programming. Not only will this provide a clear resource for those interested, it also gives yours truly a chance to discover more about what makes our young people tick with regards to games and coding. For this section, I got some of our lunchtime crew to pick out images of their favourite computer games characters to go on the wall.

This month also marks LGBT+ History month and we have set up a small display at the front of the library to mark this, complete with both fiction and non-fiction material covering LGBT themes. Its important that young people from all walks of life feel welcome in the library and that the diversity within the school is reflected as much as possible in the libraries’ resources.

March will most likely see a weekly, or bi-weekly, update as there will be a lot to cover! Next week we will be welcoming Neil Slorance and John Wagner to the library as part of the Wee Write! Festival as well as World Book Day on the 5th. Furthermore, Amnesty International’s Words That Burn poetry project will be kicking off in St. Andrew’s from the 11th!

February Roundup

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LGBT History Month: The Library celebrated LGBT History Month by displaying the fiction and non-fiction titles selected by the school’s LGBT group. The titles were chosen as part of the LGBT SLIF-funded project. Pupils used homemade bunting as well as resources from the TIE campaign website.

Purple Friday was celebrated in the school’s Fuel Zone with live music and a bake sale. The Library marked the occasion as well by implementing our new Pride section that features fiction and non-fiction books about LGBT and equalities themes. The school’s LGBT group have decided on the criteria for the section. Double copies are placed within the relevant genre sections throughout the Library in order to cross-promote LGBT stories and authors.

We’ve created an LGBT reading list that includes the titles chosen by the pupils: LGBT+ Book List

Blind Date with a Book: Our amazing pupil Library Assistant, Sharia, created her first Library display. To coincide with Valentine’s Day, her ‘Blind Date with a Book’ display featured books wrapped in paper. She wanted pupils to take a chance on a book they may otherwise not have chosen themselves and participants were told they had to read at least one chapter of the book before returning it. The display was a hit! One hundred books were issued from the display and the students had a lot of fun guessing which book they were matched with. Great job, Sharia!

Senior Participatory Spend Consultation: The Library will be dedicating a portion of our 2020-2021 budget on books for our Senior Section. This will involve engaging with S4 and S5 pupils through discussions and surveys in order to identify the authors, genres, and subjects that interest them the most. So far we’ve visited five S5/6 English classes and received some interesting feedback from the students. Throughout March we will work with S4 PSE pupils. Our findings will be published o the blog in April.

December 2019 Roundup

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LGBT+ Mitchell Event: Over the past few months, Shawlands Academy Library, Smithycroft Secondary School, and Hillhead Secondary School were part of an LGBT project funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). The project is aimed to support LGBT+ young people’s wellbeing and digital literacy by creating an online community and safe space, which will develop and encourage digital creativity through sharing experiences and peer support. To do this, each Library created an online community with an equalities/LGBT+ focus across Glasgow Schools that will give pupils an opportunity to share experiences through creative writing and informal communication. Pupils were invited to partake in an LGBT+ book group supported by their School Librarian and share their opinions of the book on the GLOW blog. There were also opportunities for pupil involvement and input throughout the project through participatory purchasing which involves the pupils to select the LGBT+ resources they want in the Library. Authors in Residence were invited to work with students on their creative writing. Authors, Michael Lee Richardson, and Jem Milton, visited our school over October and November to deliver some interesting and thought-provoking workshops as well as create a piece of collaborative poetry to be presented at the Mitchell Celebration event.

December 3rd saw the project’s finale at the Mitchell Library where all three participating schools met to attend workshops and share their work. The event included workshops by Dean Atta, Jem Milton, and Kirsty Logan.

Read more information about the project on the Glasgow Libraries LGBT Blog

LGBT Youth Scotland: Shawlands Academy has been awarded their GOLD charter from LGBT Youth Scotland! It is the first secondary school in Glasgow to have received it and one of a handful in the country to have been awarded it. GOLD Charter is a programme that shows the school champions LGBTQI pupil inclusion and safeguards their rights. Read more about the Charter