Tag Archives: school library

World Book Day at Holyrood

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!

 

 

All go at Eastbank on the shortest month

What a fabulous February we’ve had at Eastbank School Library !  It’s such a short month, but we’ve packed so much into it here at Eastbank.

Spring is coming soon and Mrs Marshall our School Librarian has been spring cleaning – or refreshing – some of our favourite sections of the library. First of all, the senior section is looking so much better.  The shelves have been tidied and books refreshed with some new stock. The display is looking far more contemporary and the addition of the new stock has really brightened the place up.

 

 

 

 

There is even a new area now showing all the senior arrivals.  Hopefully the students don’t get too distracted from their studies by hunting for books with so many great choices displayed in front of them.

And there’s plenty of new books for all the other students to enjoy as well.

These manga were loaned out within 2 days!
2 of the new Black Clover books didn’t even make this photo as they were loaned out the same morning they came in….

Some great new books about beauty and transport also were a welcome addition to our stock.  They look amazing and I’m sure they’ll be popular too.

Following on from January, our staff book club is going from strength to strength.

In the library on the last Tuesday of the month we all gather and talk about all things bookish, and compare reads and recommendations.  We also participate in the entirely voluntary book dare scheme !  It’s a great example for the pupils to see how many staff, across all different subject areas in the school, love reading too.  And the staff really enjoy showing off their, “Ask me what I’m reading?” badges as well.And that’s not all.  Also, we’re really looking forward to World Book Day in March.  The tokens have just arrived !  Watch this space and we’ll tell you what we get up to all through next month.

 

February @ St. Andrew’s

February was a great month at St. Andrew’s with some exciting news!

New Look

We have had a make-over! Our new shelving has arrived plus the walls received a much-needed lick of paint. We are still waiting on some new furniture arriving – at which point we will have our official grand re-opening! In the meantime, we have at least been able to welcome both classes and our lunchtime crowd back!

 

 

Brian Conaghan

On Tuesday 20th, we also welcomed Brian Conaghan to the school as part of our SLIF project with Renfrew Council. He chatted to our S3s about his life growing up in Coatbridge, his journey in becoming an author and also about his new book, Treacle Town.

 

March is shaping up to be even busier with two author visits, World Book Day, Woman’s History Month AND British Science Week all coming up!

Lochend loves February

We end February here with a bit of mystery at Lochend Community High School.  We all love a new book, and what better sight than a brand new Peter’s delivery box landing on the library desk.  I wonder what’s inside this time? You’ll need to wait until next month !

We’ve been lucky enough to have lots of new books in the past month which have been flying off the shelves.  Our quick reads section is one of our most popular areas in the Lochend Library.  With so many quick reads books arriving in February, it was easy to highlight the choice in both subjects and length of books available here at our inclusive library.  Just check out the amount of quick reads we have to choose from on the trolleys !

 

Our book of the month for February though is the wonderful 100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Cafe.  This quirky title is an unusual mix of manga and traditional novel styles, with cartoons then followed by a chapter of writing.  The story itself is great too.  It’s about Julian who meets a rabbit called Chie-san who leads him to the Tokyo Ghost Cafe.  There Mama-san welcomes them to this strange and unusual place, and tells them that she has found a young boy called Akira-San who has wondered into the cafe and told her that he is lost and needs to go home.  Mama-san asks them to guide Akira-San home.  However, this isn’t straightforward as Akira-san doesn’t quite know where home is and no-one really knows who he is.  As each trip progresses, Akira-san seems to remember more and more about home along the way.  However the group are met by set backs such as tigers, temples, crocodiles and snow blizzards  – which stop them in their tracks.  You’ll love this action packed adventure – with the unusual styles and Japanese words to learn thrown in – you won’t be able to put it down…  Lochend loves it !

And of course we are looking forward to World Book Day early in March !  Our tokens have already arrived, and Mrs Marshall is guarding them in a secret location…..  The books will land at Lochend on the Friday (as the library isn’t open on a Thursday) – and there’s lots of exciting plans for then too.  Here’s a taste of what’s to come …….

Plans for 2024 at Cleveden

2023 was one of the most eventful years yet at Cleveden and the Library Assistants have been busy in January planning how to make the library even better in 2024:

‘I love working in the library, it’s usually so peaceful and chill. In 2024. In 2024, I’m going to work on making the library more relaxing because it can get a bit crazy sometimes’ HT (S2)

‘I love working in the library, it gives me a sense of comfort when other things get too much. I like the library’s peacefulness. Putting books in order and putting them on the shelf keeps me more active than PE! I like the sounds the books make when I put them on the shelf so in 2024 I hope to do that more often’ LL (S2)

‘The library is an amazing place and I still enjoy working as an assistant. In 2024, I plan to work on making more creative posters and displays and to keep asking Colin for more jobs to improve my skills as an assistant because I am proud to be part of the library!’ AW (S2)

‘I love when the library at my school is open because when our librarian is here I have someone to talk to. I wish it was open more. Working in the library gives me the opportunity to take on lots of responsibilities, I would like to do more book sorting and labelling in 2024 because I don’t like when the shelfs get messed up. And it’s so obvious that the more work we do, the better our treat/pay is on a Tuesday. Hopefully Cake Pops for writing this?’ KC (S2)

January in St Paul’s

Happy New Year and welcome to the first blog post of 2024 🥳

New Furniture 🛋️

This month the library received some new furniture, kindly donated by Silverburn Shopping Centre. We now have two lovely new seated areas that can be used for private study, quiet reading or small group work.

Reading Schools 📚

Our senior Reading Ambassadors have been working with the Rights Respecting Schools group to create a display around the theme of Identity tying in with Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January.

Newsletter 📜

The library newsletter is being sent out to all staff and parents this week. It’s full of recommendations, library news and activities.

 

 

Go to this Sway

 

January’s author visit and more in 2024

Eastbank School Library was super lucky to have Neil Slorance as a visiting author this month.  Neil is an illustrator who has worked with many well known clients such as the BBC, STV, Titan Comics  – and contributed to the official Dr Who comic books.

Our S3 pupils took part in a session where Neil demonstrated how to build characters.   The pupils went on to draw their own ideas with guidance and tips from Neil, finally creating an individual comic strip narrative.  You can see how interested and hard working our pupils were during the session below.  And thanks go to the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature Scheme, who part-funded the session.

 We would love to have Neil back again soon.

It has been such a busy start to 2024 in the library here at Eastbank Academy.   I think with everyone being off school in the Christmas break, they’ve tidied their rooms and brought back lots of books at the start of term.  In one single afternoon, from a tidy desk at midday, the library returns desk looked like this !

But on the other hand, January often is a time when we’re stuck inside as the weather is awful, we can’t get out and play sports or anything – so instead we like to have some of our favourite books to read and enjoy.  I think all these things have combined together and left our football book spinner as bare as last year’s Christmas tree in January !   Pupils – please bring back all the overdue books as soon as you can, especially the football collection, manga and the Wimpy Kid books.  Other pupils are waiting to read them and the bookcase is missing being full.

Last, but by no means least, we have more brilliant books just added to the library bookshelves.  Come and see them soon.  In particular, we are loving Ultra Wild by Steve Mushin.  Even the cover art is amazing !  Ultra Wilde is a series of very detailed comic strips which give wild, extreme and wacky ways we could help to return cities to the wild and combat climate change.  Although lots of fun, it really highlights the problems we have with urban environments co-existing with nature.  Steve’s narrative describes how we got to where we are today in modern cities, and how science around bringing nature back in to cities is possible.  It’s such a fun book as the ideas are taken to the extreme with instructions even on how to put a cannon into your toilet – so much fun! But again, it gives lots of interesting ideas and data on climate change as well, making it really useful.  Get it out on loan today – you will love it.

** For more information on the illustrator Neil Slorance please visit his website – www.neilslorance.com

***And for more information about the Ultra Wild book please see www.ultrawild.org

December/January @ St. Andrew’s

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

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.

Hyndland at Christmas Time

“O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are your…books?”

Christmas Book Tree

We have been very busy this December getting the library ready for Christmas. Our Tuesday Library Club members have outdone themselves this year with the library book tree. I think we can all agree it looks tremendous, well done everyone!

Our Book Tree!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New books

We received some exciting new stock this month, a complete collection of Death Note (Manga). Not the most festive, but one of the worlds most popular Manga series!

Reading Schools

Our Reading Schools group has been busy this month making ‘Shelf Shouters’. These are all around the library recommending books to everyone. Keep an eye out for them and give them a try

Hyndland Library wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

See you in 2024!