Tag Archives: school library

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.

Hyndland at Christmas Time

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“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!

Christmas @ St. Andrew’s

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We hope everyone is looking forward to some well deserved time off over the Christmas Break! In the meantime, here is our display (complete with possibly the smallest Christmas tree in the school) of some of our Christmas and Winter-themed books to tide you over, all hand-picked by our library helpers:

Thanks to all the staff and pupils at St. Andrew’s who have continued to support the library and we hope to have an even better 2024 complete with a shiny new library!

End of term fun, Holyrood Library

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The holidays are coming – time to celebrate the work of our amazing Library volunteers before we head off for a well-earned rest.  They’ve worked tirelessly to promote reading and make the library a friendly and welcoming place. Whatever you need, the library helpers will be there for you!

Senior helper evaluating books to keep

R. in S5 has used her I.T skills to master the library management system (Spark) and now adds in new stock, can search the catalogue, identifies old books to be weeded and comes up with excellent ideas inspired by her love of reading.

Surrounded by books

S6 pupil book recommendations

C. in S6 shares book recommendations, is always up to date with new releases, and is a life-long lover of books. She balances this with a busy S6 schedule, often studying in the library after school.

Our Duke of Edinburgh S3 Volunteers bring fun to our lunchtimes. S1 loved their  design a Christmas Tree, & Elf Hat activities. It’s been a privilege to see a special bond grow between S1 and S3. So far 120 pupils in S1 have completed the Christmas Reading Challenge, run in collaboration with Community Libraries.

Lunchtime competition for S1

S1 Helpers at work

S1 Helpers also do a great job, running the issue desk at intervals and lunchtimes, coming up with games & colouring in, and encouraging everyone to borrow books.

 

 

S1 pupils enjoyed our special writing competition for Book Week Scotland. This competition was pupil led and inspired by award winning author Lindsay Littleson’s book EuroSpies. The mission was: “Write a job application to become a Spy” Some great entries. Lindsay thought they would definitely get the  job!

A last thought as we’re doing our Christmas shopping – good to consider how important books are not only for enjoyment but also for wellbeing and achievement. Research  by the Scottish Book Trust explains that “access to books at a young age allows children to flourish” and “Reading for pleasure is the biggest indicator of a child’s future success”  https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/articles/the-importance-of-book-ownership

Here’s a lovely personal memory shared by one of our sixth year pupils, about the importance of books.

 

Well done everyone and Happy Christmas !

September @ St. Andrew’s

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We’re back for another school year and have lots of things to update everyone on!

Library move/refurb

After our move to English 4, we have moved again! This time to a much larger space. We are currently awaiting a full refurb of the library but once this is done, we look forward to bringing back our full programme of clubs and events – no less the Manga Club! Watch this space for updates.

S1 Inductions

September was a month for meeting and getting to know our new S1s. It was great having them down for their library inductions and there were a lot of keen readers amongst them.

ProQuest/GALE sessions

We are already underway with our research skills workshops as Advanced Higher Drama got their first ProQuest/GALE/Oxford DNB session of the year. We are hoping to continue this with both Social Subjects and English classes next month.

 

Next Month

October will see us continue with our class borrowing periods for all S1 to S3 pupils and work with S6 paired readers. As the new S1s get their iPads, we are looking to begin Libby/Borrowbox sessions to promote our online resources. October also marks Black History Month (UK) and we will have a pupil-curated display in the library to mark this.

All change at Eastbank – library refurbishment

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Come and see our transformation in the Eastbank Academy Library !

Through the summer, Mrs Marshall and her many helpers (thank you librarians and janitorial staff !) worked to transform the library space at Eastbank Academy.   The whole project involved recycling unwanted bookcases from other libraries with little or no money spent.  Some bookcases work so well in a different space and our library has a new lease of life.  At the start of the project, when you decide to change a library space, you have to move lots – and lots, and lots – of books !

   

And when the books are off the shelves, then the shelves are the next thing to dismantle.  What a job that was!  It involved lots of helpers to take down the bookshelves which had been at Eastbank for several years.  Being a green school, we saved some of these shelves for other projects.  Here’s how the shelves looked all piled up after taking the bookcases apart.

One by one we built the new bookcases and got the new spinner book cases into place.   The library definitely was looking quite different now.   The light colours of the bookcases definitely looked brighter and gave us more room to relax while choosing books.

 

In addition, the library was provided with 2 brand new small bookcases which will become home to special collections in the library, such as our Shelf Help selection of books.

 

Finally, this week, the last bookcase arrived to complete our transformation !  It’s looking great and certainly makes the non-fiction more attractive and easier to see.

Overall, the pupils’ feedback has all been very positive, and they enjoy coming into the new space to choose their books. The library now is far more attractive, but also far easier to use.  With a new layout instead of just rows of books and new signage, book borrowing is a better experience.  The library itself is a lovely space to be in.  We are all looking forward to the rest of the school year in our the new library space.

 

 

 

Lochend new non fiction

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We’ve had some amazing new non fiction arrive last week at Lochend.  Why don’t you prepare for Halloween at the end of October by reading some gruesome and scary new books?

Do No Harm and Cursebreaker 

Nothing is scarier than real life, and in Do No Harm there’s lots of real life medical stories from the past to the present day.  This book shows how we’ve come from cutting off limbs with saws right up to date – making progress in the fight against cancer and other diseases.  A great read, with short sections and fantastic graphics

 

Cursebreaker   

Want to be scared?  This book, with it’s creepy adventures, gives you the choice to play a game where you can escape from prison – then fight your way to freedom via a fantasy world.  Great fun.

New Non Fiction

There’s lots to love in our new non fiction selection. Whether you want to find the confidence to speak up and be heard, or select a new film to watch there’s something for everyone.  Even a new Vegan cook book to get you cooking new recipies !

 

 

 

Book of the Month for October – Artificial Intelligence by Tom Jackson

This tiny book is a colourful explosion of  great information, with 4 chapters taking us from the early days of AI decades ago right up to today.   It’s a great read, giving clear information and you can dip into topics without having to read the full book.

Storytelling for Mental Health project/Book Week Scotland 2022

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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!

A good not too bad terrible news…

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The school library is getting refurbished!

In October, the school informed me that the library will be getting refurbished! It was a project pending since last year and couldn’t believe it was going ahead. But this time, it appeared to be more concrete since they gave me a frame time. The work will be done in approximately four weeks.

So, I started to invite ALL the S1 and S2 classes to come in, to borrow as many books as possible. The more they borrow the less I have to pack.

Later, I gathered my little army of minions AKA the library helpers to organise the work and to start packing. Pupils selected books by subjects to then been delivered in every department of the school:

 

The rest of the books were packed in boxes to be kept in a storage room:

 

The library helpers did an amazing job! In less than a week the whole library was packed!! We celebrated by having a small cupcake party:

The library cleared, the real work could finally start:

I’m really looking forward to welcome pupils and staff back into a beautiful new brand library!!

#Breakingnews: it appears that it will take more time than announced…Keep posted!