Tag Archives: Library events

Book Group @Holyrood Secondary

Logo by Hunnah & Fabia

‘Chapter Chats’ is our new pupil-led, super friendly Book Group for anyone who loves reading. Started by Fabia and Hunnah in S3, we meet in the Library after school on Mondays. Drop in for a quick and friendly book chat. Our meetings last for about 15 mins. ….. perfect if you’re rushing home to do your homework or make the dinner. Everyone is welcome, both young people and staff.

Some of the books we’ve been chatting about :

What I’m reading ……

‘Yellowface’ by R. F. Huang – an unusual and gripping plot line about a young author who will stop at nothing to succeed. Themes include cultural appropriation, addiction to social media, plagiarism and becoming so lost in a lie you even start to convince yourself!

Just discovered our young people are reading Rebecca Huang too:)

Sharing books at Chapter Chat group

Other events

We had great fun with Design a Book Token competition for World Book Day. These designs by Maha and Victoria won joint 1st prize for S1. All entries have also been sent away to the national competition. Well done everyone, fantastic work.

Special thanks to our brilliant S6 Khola, Claire & Fahima who decorated the display board, and presented prizes to all the winners at our lunchtime celebration. (Fahima is just out of photo as she’s chatting with and encouraging our S1 pupils).

S6 Guest helpers

A fond farewell to all our S6. Their contribution to library events, book groups, paired reading, artwork, general fun, kindness and laughter has been much valued. Exciting times ahead !

“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” – Paulo Coelho

March in St Paul’s

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March was an extremely busy month in the library. We had various World Book Day events and two amazing author sessions. Let’s have a look 😊

World Book Day 2024

The library was very busy during the week of World Book Day. We had a book themed Scavenger Hunt, a Big Book Quiz and an Easter basket full of goodies that was raffled off to teachers. All of the events were organised and ran by our Senior Literacy Ambassadors. Congratulations go to them, they did an absolutely fantastic job 🥰

Winners of the scavenger hunt

Big Book Quiz

Easter Basket Winner

Author Visits

During March the library hosted not one but two fabulous author visits. The first author was Hiba Noor Khan talking about her book ‘Safiyyah’s War’

Hiba talking about Safiyyah’s War

Our second author visit was from Brian Conaghan talking about his book ‘Treacle Town’. Brian’s visit was part of the Library Young Team Project supported by the Scottish Library Improvement Fund.

Brian Conaghan talking about his book Treacle Town

St Roch’s Reads: March

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Word book day

March means World Book Day time! The library has handed out lots of tokens and they’re available until the end of the month. WBD token can be used to claim a free book in bookshops an participating shops until 31st March. You can find out about the books and shops here.

To mark the day, this year pupils competed in quizzes and joined in some bookish games of Tumbling Towers. Every block had a question or action and we had some delightful reading dares as forfeits. Big thanks to all the pupil library assistants who helped out as activity leaders.

Yoto shortlist

On 13th March the Yoto Carnegie award shortlist was announced and the pupil assistants have jumped right in. We’re reading Away with words , The door of no return and Steady for this at the moment, you can find out more about these titles below. Stay tuned for next month’s blog to see what we thought.

Away with words by Sophie Cameron

Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluña to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi’s boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn’t speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. Set in a world where words appear physically when people speak, AWAY WITH WORDS explores the importance of communication and being there for those we love

The door of no return / Kwame Alexander

Eleven-year-old Kofi Offin loves these things above all else: his family, the fireside tales of his father’s father, a girl named Ama, and, of course, swimming. But when the unthinkable occurs during a festival between rival villages, Kofi ends up in a fight for his life. What happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.

Steady for this by Nathanael Lessore

Shaun (aka MC Growls) is ready to drop his best bars and smash the competition at Raptology. That way, he’s convinced Tanisha, his crush, will finally give him a chance.
But when a livestream practice goes epically wrong, Growls’s dirty laundry is literally exposed. He’s finally achieved his dreams of going viral – not in the good way.
Now Tanisha won’t look at him, he’s the joke of the school and there’s no way he can show his face at the competition. Will he ever catch a break?

Happy Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, taking place in March and April this year. It is a holy month which Muslims observe by giving, fasting, worship, studying the Quran, spiritual reflection, prayer and helping others. The end of Ramadan will be celebrated in April with Eid al-Fitr – the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast. Remember to be considerate of your Muslim friends during Ramadan, as they may be fasting during the day.

Many St Roch’s pupils are observing Ramadan this month, including some of our library volunteers. They put together a lovely library display to share information about Islamic culture and promote Muslim authors. Well done to Rose & co for their work.

The holidays will soon be upon us, we hope you all enjoy a well earned break. Time to rest and recharge before getting ready for exam season!

Ramadan Mubarak & Happy Easter to everyone celebrating.

World Book Day at Holyrood

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For World Book Day, our focus was reading for pleasure. With so much fun to fit in, WBD became a Week, instead of a day! Young people and staff enjoyed sharing their love of reading. Here’s a round-up of some of the activities.

Book Reviews: Fabia & Hunnah in S3 are keen readers of new and trending fiction and popped in after school to chat about books.

“A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is such a thrilling book! It’s about a high school girl named Pip who decides to investigate a murder case for a school project. As she delves deeper, she uncovers secrets and twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. The book is full of suspense and unexpected turns. It’s a real page-turner! If you enjoy mysteries, you’ll love this one! Fabia, S3

“The Inheritance Games” I loved this book there are so many puzzles for you to solve all throughout the book, not just in the writing, but all of the people are just as mysterious as their words. I found that the subtle romance subplots involving the four brothers were also intriguing because one of them is a 10 but so is his brother. Hunnah, S3

Chantelle, S6 always finds time for reading, even with a busy study schedule : For World Book Day, I recommend ‘A Song of Wraith and Ruin’ by Roseanne A. Brown. I rated this book five stars. It is a fast paced, action-packed story about two people who experience love, loss, betrayal and it is very bingeable! It honestly felt almost like watching a movie (I even bought my own copy after reading it).

Something I really liked was that the main characters are black. This is the first fantasy book I have ever seen to have a black main character, which as a black person myself, made me feel seen and recognised. I felt closer to the characters, especially Karina who bears the weight of expectation of everyone around her as she is the crown princess.

I loved that this book doesn’t portray black people as the negative stereotype seen in films, but instead portrays us as exactly what we are. Human. Chantelle, S6

Book Breakfast

Staff and Pupils joined together for a Book Breakfast before start of class, on World Book Day. We enjoyed croissants, fruit and snacks while chatting about what we’re reading. What a great way to start the day!

Throughout the day, a feast of activities was on offer, organised by our brilliant staff and young people all around the school, including a Book Swap table; Dressing up as your favourite book character (Mr. McGrath made an amazing Yarvi); a Drop Everything And Read session for the whole of S1-S3. And there were fun activities in English, including a Read around the World research task, and a Design a Book Token competition in the library.

‘Chosen By Us’ books

Our S2 Writers’ Group were given a budget of £100 to choose anti-racist, diverse books for the library. This was part of a School Library Improvement Fund project, continued from last year. So far the original group members have mentored a Writing Club for S1, written book reviews, poetry, and an article for eMag ‘Swatch’, and are now taking part in stock selection, while also welcoming some fantastic new members to the Group. The new ‘Chosen By Us’ section includes these superb authors : Onjali Rauf, A.M. Dassu, Sharna Jackson, Benjamin Zephaniah, Alice Walker. We also wanted to include some authors new to us such as Danielle Jawando, Faridah Abike Iyimide, and Clare Weze.

This is still a work in progress, and will take a bit of experimenting to get the labels in the right place to not hide the book covers! As American author Kwame Alexander says “All that is good and accomplished in this World takes work and a little chaos”.

We look forward to reading and chatting together about our new books.

Happy reading, and be kind to yourself this busy month!

December/January @ St. Andrew’s

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Happy new year from the librarian and library helpers!

After an excellent Christmas, 2024 looks like it will have a number of excellent things happening in and around the library. Today, we will give you a sneak peak of some of the many new books we have in before giving you some updates as well as our plans for February and beyond.

New Books!

Our new stock is coming in thick and fast! This month we have a number of excellent titles fresh out of the box, including these:

Refurb

The library refurb is officially underway! Unfortunately this means there will be disruptions to the library service over the next couple of weeks but we promise it’ll be worth it! We’ll be sure to throw a big party once it’s done…

Author Visits!

As of next month we will be welcoming a series of authors to come and talk to our S3s as part of a Scottish Government-funded project called Library Young Team! First up, we will be welcoming Brian Conaghan to the school on Tuesday 20th February.

Special guests at Holyrood

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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.

Holyrood Anti-Racism Library

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S6 pupils at Holyrood Secondary organised an Anti-Racism outreach library in the fuel zone. This event promoted anti-racist, diverse books, in a friendly setting – many young people and staff stopped to browse, chat and borrow during their lunch hour. The books were selected from the school library and included biographies, travel and culture, and fiction by authors of all different nationalities and cultures. Huge thank you to our S6 Anti-Racism Leadership Group for organising and making this such a fun lunchtime! Well done to our S1 helpers too, for taking over during BGE lunchtime.

October is Black History Month. Well done to Miss Porch’s S1 class, who took great pride in choosing books about black scientists, sports people, politicians and celebrities for our BHM book display.

Our Holyrood Family is made up of young people from 44 different countries, speaking 62 languages (and counting!). We enjoy celebrating our many different cultures, with books and events in the library. Our library stock is developing to better reflect the diversity of our school community. New ideas on how we can do this, are always welcome.

October Book Recommendations

Librarian’s choice:

The Happiest Man on Earth: Author, Eddie Jaku survived terrible cruelty in the Nazi death camps. This is an incredible book about hope, courage and friendship that helped him survive.

Student’s Choice

Planet Omar, by Zanib Mian: Good for fans of ‘Wimpy Kid’, Omar with have you roaring with laughter.

Happy Reading!

Celebrating Freedom: The Importance of Banned Books Week in School Libraries

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As a school librarian, I like to think my role goes beyond just stacking books and shushing excitable young people. It extends to nurturing developing minds, encouraging critical thinking, and championing intellectual freedom. That’s why Banned Books Week holds a special place in my heart, and I was beyond excited to mark it at St Thomas Aquinas this year.

Banned Books Week is an annual event that unites school libraries across the world in celebration of the freedom to read, while calling for us all to reflect on the challenges that literature often faces. It’s an opportunity for educators, students, parents, and the entire community to come together and explore the profound significance of preserving open access to information and ideas.

First and foremost, Banned Books Week serves as a stark reminder of the enduring importance of intellectual freedom. The act of banning or challenging books reflects attempts to limit knowledge and restrict the free exchange of ideas. By highlighting these challenges, we teach our students that a society that values diverse perspectives and critical thinking must defend the right to read, even when confronted with controversial or unconventional ideas. Freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic right, and it’s up to young people to carry on defending it against those who would have their freedoms curtailed.

Moreover, Banned Books Week is an opportunity to introduce students to a range of literary works that have faced censorship attempts. It provides a window into the world of thought-provoking, boundary-pushing literature that may otherwise be overlooked. When we engage with these books, we encourage students to think critically, form their own opinions, and participate in meaningful discussions about important topics.

In school libraries, Banned Books Week can spark dialogue about the value of free expression, diversity, and inclusion. It prompts students to question why certain books are targeted for removal or restriction, and encourages them to develop a deeper understanding of the power of storytelling. It teaches them that literature can be a mirror reflecting the endless variety of human experiences, and a window into worlds they might never have encountered otherwise. Coming into contact with these diverse life experiences in turn fosters empathy and helps create connections across society.

Banned Books Week is an invaluable opportunity for school libraries to nurture intellectual growth, promote freedom of thought, and celebrate the rich tapestry of literature that makes up our world. It reminds us that the freedom to read is a precious right, one that we must actively protect and promote. By observing Banned Books Week, we empower our students to become critical thinkers, engaged citizens, and lifelong readers who have all the necessary tools to build a brighter future for us all.

Find out more about Banned Books Week and the Let Freedom Read campaign on the official website.

National Poetry Day 2023: Finding Refuge in Words

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Falling on the first Thursday of October each year, National Poetry Day offers a wonderful opportunity to examine the power and beauty of poetry, celebrating both its role in the curriculum and the pure joy of reading it for pleasure. This year’s theme, “Refuge,” encourages our students to reflect on the idea of finding comfort and safety, not just in themselves but also in the stories we tell and the shared experiences which underpin them. It’s a reminder that their love for poetry connects them to a nationwide celebration.

The Notre Dame High School Library has accordingly been transformed into a poetry wonderland, highlighting a carefully curated collection of classic and contemporary poems. We want our students to know that poetry is not confined to textbooks but is a living, breathing art form meant to be explored.

Meanwhile, at our activity station, students have the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of creative projects, including some wonderful worksheets by National Poetry Day UK and a dedicated blackout poetry workshop. Armed with markers, they transform pages from old books into new poems, discovering hidden meanings within the text. It’s a fun and creative exercise that encourages close reading and critical thinking. The results are often breathtaking.

The Power of Poetry in Schools

Poetry plays a vital role in our curriculum. It hones language skills, enhances vocabulary, and fosters critical thinking. More importantly, it’s a medium for self-expression and self-discovery, especially during the challenging years of adolescence.

Reading poetry for pleasure is equally important. It allows students to appreciate the beauty of language and the depth of human emotions. It’s a lifelong journey of literary appreciation that transcends textbooks and exams.

National Poetry Day is about celebrating the joy of words. It’s a day of creativity, reflection, and inspiration. Poetry isn’t just lines on paper; it’s a bridge to understanding ourselves and the world.

Here’s to National Poetry Day and to the enduring magic of poetry, touching our students’ lives for years to come!

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