Summer term has been a feast of reading and fun!
In May, we took part in ‘Keep the Heid and Read’, celebrating how reading for pleasure can improve mental health. 
“Fiction books are great if you want to step away from social media for a while”. This is great advice from Mehek (S6)
In June, we celebrated Empathy Day. We chatted about how reading can take you to other worlds, and let you walk in someone else’s shoes. We selected our favourite books for Empathy and made a colourful display.
Lunchtime Reading We were delighted to win 10 copies of Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin. We hope to read and review this book together. Happy to share our spare copies!
“One girl against an Empire”
Our English dept. organised a whole school Literacy Day for S2, The mission was to solve the crime of the missing Stone of Destiny, which involved investigating and forensic science, using expertise from depts. across the school.
In the library, we created a display of detective fiction and criminology books.
We also researched the Stone of destiny and designed Wanted posters to help find it!
Zines : Mr. Kelly and Miss Johnston’s S2 classes created amazing zines in Science and made a display for readers to help themselves.
Bookmarks : Mumina and Abdul made these beautiful bookmarks as gifts to take away.
We were excited to win a copy of Hag Storm by Victoria Williamson (at a book auction to raise funds for Malawi). Great inspiration for a competition! Over 30 pupils entered ‘Name the Haggis’. The winning entry was Hector the Horse=Riding Haggis, inspired by the Tam O’Shanter theme in Victoria’s novel.
To round off the year, Holyrood was awarded Silver accreditation as a Reading School. Superb recognition of the work of our Reading Schools Committee, and all pupils and staff who promote a reading culture in the school, The library has been glowing with all the pupil care and nurturing. Congratulations to everyone, and thank you to Ms Longo for making it so much fun to work on this project with a brilliant team.
Have a great Summer everyone, and keep reading!
Taiba : “I like reading because it allows me to stand in other peoples’ shoes and experience someone else’s life for a while. I always struggled to decide what I wanted to pursue at university. Reading books written by many different professionals in their careers, such as ‘When Breath Becomes Air‘ made me feel I could make a more educated choice. Reading has also prepared me for the university application process and has given me things to talk about in interviews”.
Our EAL Book Group continues to meet at lunchtimes when we have fun chatting, eating lunch and finding new books to enjoy together.
On National Poetry Day we had a visit from Anita Govan. Ms Longo’s S3 put their heart & soul into improvising and performing their own poems. Anita presented us with a copy of her book. What a fantastic day.
Alex Nye visited us for Book Week Scotland. S2 & S3 loved Alex’s ‘Art of the Ghost Story’ workshop. Miss Cameron & Mr Clarke’s classes came up with brilliant questions. A fascinating insight into being an author. Well done all!
A December highlight was a visit from Metaphrog (John & Sandra). It was amazing to learn all about the creative process. Our audience included our EAL Book Group, and our own published graphic novelists now in S4, who had worked with John and Sandra previously. It felt like a lovely family reunion.
