Tag Archives: Library events

National Poetry Day 2023: Finding Refuge in Words

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

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

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

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

Storytelling for Mental Health project/Book Week Scotland 2022

November was a very busy month in the library. Not only did we have Book Week Scotland, but we also had a trip to the Mitchell library and our Storytelling Group have also been busy!

 

Book Week Scotland/Metaphrog trip

Our theme for Book Week Scotland was ‘Scotland’s Stories’ so we decided the best thing to celebrate Scottish stories was to set up a literary map of Scotland! From the Borders to Shetland,  the Western Isles to Edinburgh, we displayed a wide range of stories set in Scotland.

 

 

 

 

We also took the opportunity to take some of our S1s to the Mitchell for a talk and exhibition by Glasgow-based comic artists Metaphrog. Everyone had a great morning and hopefully some budding comic book artists took some inspiration!

 

Storytelling Group

We also continued our weekly storytelling group this month. Over the last few weeks we had been working with Lego and some other crafty materials to create our own characters. Once we had done this, we then gave them a back story, including a habitat, likes/dislikes and even thought about any quests or antics they would get up to. There were some excellent creations with one of out pupils even drawing out a whole map of their characters’ world!

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. Andrew’s Wee Write trip!

Class 1.2 have been excellent users of the library this year. So to reward them, we thought we’d arrange for them to meet a real life author at the Wee Write festival in the Mitchell Library!

We went to a talk/workshop by writer Alex Malarky and, needless to say, everyone had a great time. We listened to Alex talk a bit about her book, including a short reading, and our young people even got the chance to create their own adventure story!

 

We’ve been a bit quiet recently due to exams going on in the library but please do return for more exciting updates!

Wee Write! @ the Gaelic School!

This year, the school were involved in two Wee Write! events!

For the first one, we had Johan Nic a’Ghobiann visit the school to give a talk to our S2s:

We also went with our S1s to the Mitchell for an event with illustrator Chris Mould who talked about his new illustrated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He also gave us plenty of tips to improve our own drawing skills.

(apologies for the poor quality photos!)

Watch this space for my exciting updates next month!

Wee Write! Festival visit

As part of the Wee Write! festival, we have had the pleasure to have Darren Simspon talking with a class of young people, lead by Mr Beaton.

Darren shared with us what inspires him, and what he would like his readers to take away from his books. It was so inspiring that our young people felt free to interview him for Swatch – the school librarians eMagazine.Darren Simpson talking to a class of young people. The covers of his three books are projected on a screen behind him.

April in St Roch’s

Spring is in full swing this month and Glasgow schools have been busy bees. We started a new term, said goodbye to some senior pupils and this week we kicked off exam season. Well done to everyone for all the studying and best of luck!  

There was also lots of  things happening in the UK and beyond for St Roch’s library to join in. 

World Autism Acceptance Week: 28 March – 3 April 2022 

April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day, but did you know the whole of April is World Autism Month?

Books are a great way to raise awareness and help us to understand each other-so we’ve listed some books about or by people with autism that are available from the school library.

You’ll find some on display in school and on the Libby by Overdrive app.

World Book Night: 23 April

Work Book Night is run by The Reading Agency and brings people from all backgrounds together for one reason – to inspire others to read more. You can do anything you want related to books: read alone, read with or to someone, or even call a friend to chat about books and share recommendations.  

There are lots of great book suggestions listed this year with previous lists also available  on their website. We collected some of the recommended books for a display in the library, to help students choose something new to read. 

Keep the heid and read! 

To celebrate the power of reading, libraries and good mental health, people are being asked to pledge SIX minutes on Wednesday 11th May 2022 and devote it to reading. 

Why? Because taking some time for yourself to relax and do things you enjoy like reading is important to help look after your mental health and wellbeing. 

Students in St Roch’s have signed up this month with their English class and will visit the library to join in the 6-minute-read on May 11th. We’re really looking forward to it!  

It’s simple to pledge on the Keep the Heid website, and you can enter a prize draw for £100 book token. Young Scot card holders can also earn reward points for pledging! Take the pledge now and see how many minutes people all over Scotland will be reading for on 11th May 2022. 

Wee Write Festival: Metaphrog 

Lastly, the Wee Write book festival for children and young people runs this year from 25th –30th April. This year’s  Wee Write Family Day is on Saturday 30 April and is jam-packed with exciting authors, illustrators and much more. Visit the Glasgow Life website to see what’s on. 

As part of the Wee Write programme for schools, award-winning graphic novelists Metaphrog will be visiting St Roch’s this month. Their latest graphic novels are fairy tale adaptations including The Red Shoes and Other Tales, The Little Mermaid and Bluebeard: A Feminist Fairy Tale, all published by Papercutz.  Sandra and John will be sharing their creative process and the secrets of making comics in what promises to be a very fun session- we can’t wait!!