Tag Archives: pupil helpers

October @ Holyrood Library

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We’ve had a busy month so far, with plenty to celebrate in the Library.

October is Black History Month, so our S3 Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers -Tafsirr, Rand and Lauren created this fantastic book  display. 

They wanted to highlight books that were joyful and celebratory, so included biographies of famous actors, sportspeople, scientists, musicians and World leaders. And some history books, celebrating art and culture, but also remembering the sad and unjust parts of Black history in a respectful way.

 

In Holyrood, we feel that it’s very important to provide diverse and anti-racist books.  So in a survey, when asked what they would like to see in the library, our Senior pupils made these suggestions :

  • A section focused on highlighting ethic minorities like biographies or books on cooking
  • More books in different languages, and also books to encourage people to learn more about other cultures
  • Scottish brown and black boys/girls everyday experiences
  • Maybe more history books on Scotland’s involvement in the slave trade.

Some of the books purchased so far:

 

Higher ESOL requests

Our readers are passionate about seeing voices of all different nationalities and cultures represented on the library shelves. Mrs Cooper’s Higher ESOL class asked for a selection of books by black authors for the classroom. Here are some of the authors they are currently enjoying: Malorie Blackman, Jumata Emill, Sharon Flake, Danielle Jawando, Shade Lapite, Jason Reynolds, Efua Traore, Alex Wheatle.

And we often like to discuss favourite authors and poets in our library Teams chat. We thought these words were very inspiring: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive: and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style”. Maya Angelou

At the start of October, we also celebrated Dyslexia Awareness Week with a pupil-led outreach library in the Fuel zone.

This showcased the books we have available in a dyslexia friendly format; and Mr. Lang provided a Quiz about famous people.  We also had a Design Your Own Superpower competition, to show that all skills and talents are valued, such as super strength, invisibility, telekinesis, talking to animals, being kind, helping one another, and putting your rubbish in the bin. So many skills – what a talented bunch!

Well done everyone

Miss Kindness

 

 

 

You Said – We Did @ Holyrood Library

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It’s been an exciting first month back – getting to know our new S1pupils, ordering new books and sorting through deliveries. Best of all has been seeing our keen readers borrow their first books, and the delight when they realise there is no limit to the number of books that can be borrowed (other than what can fit into your schoolbag)! With new books arriving regularly, there will always be great choice of both old favourites, or something completely new to try.

In June, 70 members of our outgoing S1 took part in a Library Survey. This was a goldmine of information, showing what’s been going well, and where improvements could be made. Here’s some examples from the survey:

You said Get more Dork Diaries & Wimpy Kid. More comics.

We did Ordered more comics, including Marvel, DC, Bunny vs Monkey, Star Wars.     

Our funny Diary & Joke books are now all shelved together in a clearly labelled special section to make them easier to find.

You said Have a rule to get people to talk quieter. No loud music. Have more of a chill out spot.

We did  Our quiet, Autism – friendly lunchtime now runs on Wednesdays. No phones, low lighting and quiet activities only. On other days, Librarian & Pupil helpers do a walk round and make sure everyone is being considerate and mindful of noise levels.

Quiet time to chill out

When asked ‘What do you like to do in the Library?’ the most popular answer was Chill out with friends, closely followed by Read, and Do Homework.

 

S1 Helpers planning activities

 

“The library is already amazing and I love spending time there”

All your comments are so valued! We’ll continue to have regular customer surveys to keep improving, and display all your suggestions and the corresponding actions taken on our ‘You Said – We Did’ giant whiteboard.

The librarian is reading …..

Apple and Rain, by Sarah Crossan 14 year old Apple is having a difficult time with bullying, and events at home. A favourite teacher encourages Apple to read poetry and write her own poems. Writing helps her to find her voice, face some really difficult family problems and bravely seek help. I loved this book.

Reading can sometimes seem trivial when you’re faced with difficult events, but the right book, at the right time can be a lifeline. Any time you’re feeling a bit down, why not pop into your school or community library and have a browse. There will always be friendly staff on hand to chat, and you’ll not leave empty-handed. Happy reading!

Ms Kindness

Summer Reading at Holyrood

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Reading Challenge

The S2 Library Helpers were so keen to encourage reading over the holidays, that they made up a Holyrood Reading Challenge. They chatted about this over a few lunchtimes and came up with a giant whiteboard of ideas. We then wrote the challenges on post-it notes that went into a lucky dip jar for participants to choose from. Here are some of the challenges:

  • Read in bed for 10 mins. every night for a week
  • Read in your garden or in a park
  • Read a page out loud to your pet
  • Read while you’re waiting for your toast to pop up
  • Listen to an eBook on the Libby app

It was a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed choosing a challenge and receiving a bookmark and merit for taking part. I’m now looking forward to hearing how everyone got on, and also what ideas the Helpers will have for our new term.

S2 Helpers came up with ideas

 

 

Seniors enjoyed the Challenge too!

While school’s out, school librarians continue to carry out essential work, joining up hundreds of new members arriving into S1, re-organising and improving collections, ordering new books, creating resources and planning projects and activities for the coming year.

I’ve been reviewing some of the pupil feedback from throughout the year, and noticed how much S1 enjoy their lunchtimes in the library. And also that some readers would like a little more help in choosing books. So I’ve ordered new board games for lunchtimes (chess, snakes & ladders, Connect4, Uno, Boggle and others), and re-organised a book display stand at the entrance to highlight new genres, including : Afrofuturism, Eco-stories, Sci-fi & Dystopian, Animal stories, Scottish authors, and Re-told fairy tales. There’s also a space for – Recommended by You, as pupil recommendations are one of the best ways to find a good book. Hopefully our keen readers will like the new display and make suggestions for anything else they would like to see included.

 

I’ve also enjoyed some time off to go on trips and celebrations including:

  • Edinburgh Castle, to watch ‘Harry Potter’ on giant screen, with live film music performed by the RSNO
  • the ‘Discovering Degas’ exhibition at the wonderful Burrell Collection.
  • my daughter’s graduation from Glasgow Caledonian University. (nice to think that some of our own Holyrooders are also studying there, I’m sure I saw a few familiar faces at the ceremony).

Hope everyone’s had a lovely holiday, look forward to seeing you back next week !

Miss Kindness

April @ St. Andrew’s

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We had loads on this month, including our final author visit as part of the Library Young Team – SLIF project (funded by the Scottish Government). We also have a new club, the rebirth of an old one plus the establishment of a School Library Council.

Graeme Armstrong at St. Andrew’s!

This month we were delighted to welcome Graeme Armstrong, author of the highly acclaimed The Young Team, to the school as our final LYT author.

Hes poke about his book and the ‘story behind the story’ which included some emotional and also inspiring aspects of his life growing up as a gang member and how he found his way out.

 Our S3s were absolutely captivated and our only five copies of his book went just moments after the talk concluded.

Games Club!

Our pupil helpers have established a new board and card games club! This will be on every Wednesday lunchtime and pupils have the chance to play any of our board and card games available in the library. We are hoping to add more

Other news

Thanks to our librarian colleagues who selected some bonus books from Waterstones for our schools. The selection at St. Andrew’s has gone down a storm already and provides the pupils with plenty of new books to keep them going until the summer holidays!

The Manga Club is also back! Due to popular demand, the club will take place in Ms. Glass’ room right across the corridor from us. I will be working with the pupils who organise the club to provide new reading material, games and activities!

On Tuesday (30th), we had our inaugural Library Council meeting. Unfortunately due to being off on study leave, our senior members couldn’t make it but our younger contingency came up with some excellent suggestions. Some exciting changes coming soon!

 

Book Group @Holyrood Secondary

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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

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!

 

 

What We’re Reading @Holyrood

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This month in the Library, our young people highlighted two special events: – Holocaust Memorial Day, and World Hijab Day.

Our S3 Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers made a book display for Holocaust Memorial Day.

Readers from S1 & S2 classes chatted about what they’ve been reading, and here are their recommendations :

S1-S3 pupils’ booklist

 

 

 

We discussed the importance of books and films, as there are now very few remaining survivors of the Holocaust, making it more important than ever that their voices be honoured and saved for future generations.

 

 

On 1st February we celebrated World Hijab Day. Our book display included authors and book characters who proudly wear the hijab, including Ayaan Mohamud, A.M. Dassu, Tahereh Maafi, Hiba Noor Khan, & S. K. Ali.

Our Rights Respecting Schools pupils did a tannoy announcement, and explained all about the origins of World Hijab Day, founded by Nazma Khan. While making our book display, we chatted about Olympic fencer  Ibtihaj Muhammad (who has written several books), and ballet dancer Stephanie Kurlow. We all want to see more library books showing better representation of hijab wearing, so we did some research on this, and  have ordered some exciting new titles.

The lovely artwork is by Evelina and Brenna in S5.

 

 

Reading for pleasure

Lorraine, at her Waterstone’s book launch

I went to the book launch of ‘The Island Swimmers’, and met Lorraine Kelly at Waterstones bookshop. It was lovely to meet a TV personality who is such a passionate supporter of books and reading. Can’t wait to read this, as I’ve been to Orkney , where the book is set, many times, and it’s a place that I love (although I’ve never been wild swimming!).

 

Coming soon….

‘Reading Schools’ gifts from Scottish Book Trust

We have lots to look forward to in March including World Book Day, lots of reading, a good bit of book partying from our young people & staff, and more great work from our Reading Schools leadership group. Happy reading!

Plans for 2024 at Springburn

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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)