Tag Archives: Library Assistants

Plans for 2024 at Springburn

2023 was a busy year in the library at Springburn Academy with the library being reorganised into genre sections. The library assistants have been reflecting on the library and what improvements they could make during 2024:

‘l love Springburn Academy’s library! It gives us a safe but fun space for reading, eating and chatting. I feel the library would be better if it was less busy so I could shelf books easier without climbing over S1s but other than this the library is a wonderful place and I’m so glad to have it in my school.’ KA (S2)

‘I love the library because Colin is really nice and supports me even when I get into trouble in class. I would say there should be a limit on how many people come in at a time because it can get so busy people can’t move around the books’ JK (S3)

‘The library can be peaceful and is full of nice and friendly people. I want to make more displays because the huge variety of books makes it hard to pick sometimes’ MK (S1)

‘I like the library because it’s easy to socialise with people and it’s always fun and occasionally calm, sometimes I think the library would be better if there was a day when only people wanting to read and use it as a library were allowed in!’ YX (S2)

‘The library is a very safe place where you can enjoy seeing your friends, I would like to make the library better by opening it all week!’ LMC (S1)

‘I like the library because it is calm and not scary like the rest of the school so obviously I would like it to be calmer and less busy during breaks like it is during class time’ CR (S3)

‘Here is what I think is good about the library: It’s very friendly. It’s social. Not many rules. Colin is nice and supportive. Places to sit at the back. People to talk to. All ages allowed and we all mix together. Here is what I would change: More seats available. No running. Make it bigger. A quiet area to study separate from where I eat my lunch’ AR (S1)

St Roch’s Library assistants have put together some great displays this month. October is Black History Month, an important occasion to recognise and celebrate the invaluable contributions of black people to British society. Pupils chose books by Black authors to highlight for the month, including fiction by Angie Thomas , Malorie Blackman and Sharna Jackson. There’s also a great junior edition of ‘Black and British‘ by David Olusoga available.

If you are a fan of star signs, we’ve got a new monthly Bookoscope display. Pupils have researched the different star signs to help them find books to match each one. Every month library assistants will choose new books for the current star sign. This month features Libra and Virgo. Don’t worry Scorpios- you’re up next!

And of course, we’ve got our Spooky Reads to celebrate spooky season. Pupils have filled our display with horror, spooks, ghouls and (most frightening of all) glitter galore. Happy Halloween!

White scary ghost isolated illustration

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

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

World book day(s)! at St Mungo’s library

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Why celebrating “world book” for a day when we can do it for an entire WEEK!

From the 28th of February till the 4th of March, the St Mungo’s library had a full program of book festivities to give the chance to every pupils in the school to celebrate.

The daily S1 library visits enjoyed a very special scavenger hunt made for the occasion. Every participants received a book token to get a free book from their favourite bookshop in town.

At lunch, the library helpers worked hard to display all the free books we received for the occasion and made sure to spread the love of reading among the school.

What will be book festivities without any competitions?!

We had two exciting competitions running that week:

The book cover competition designed by some of our Higher and S3 Elective young people in partnership with the Art department.

Here are the three winners:

The bookface competition with very creative S3 pupils.

Here are some fantastic entries:

And finally at lunch, the library “display committee” had the responsibility to count the votes for the Scottish Teen Book prize.

They really embraced the task!

World book day(s!) was a huge success at St Mungo’s with more than 500 tokens given away to actual and potential readers!

World Book Day Celebration

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Hello!

March means World Book Day. This means holding great celebration in our school, here are some of things we did.

Our library assistants Jude and Abdul organised a super fun Book Quiz, that had a wonderful participation! Picture of the library full of young people taking part to the book quiz for WBD.

Only for the library assistants, Ms Spaltro organised a treasure hunt inspired and with the book character Wally. And here’s one for you, can you find Wally in this post?

At the event, we also announced the three library assistants of the month. They have been chosen because of their great commitment to the library, but also the support they have given to other library users. The three young people awarded have also been behind the scenes of many very successful events, such as Harry Potter Night etc.

Here’s the comment from Jack, one of the library assistants of the month about the whole celebration:

“We had a great time at the library. We played a fun game on blooket, we had a “Were’s Wally” hunt around the library and we all got to take a book or two home.”

As we believe that also teachers should be involved in World Book Day celebration, we organised a free book station for them, to get a copy of two wonderful CPD books.

These are only some of the different activities and displays we arranged around the school, please check out Twitter feed if you want to know more.

Happy Reading!