Tag Archives: school library

Happy New Year from St. Andrew’s!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and found time to relax with a good book!

We have largely been closed since we came back from the break to accommodate prelims. However, we can still provide books! Aside from reintroducing the class boxes – a bespoke selection of books for each class – we are also bringing back our click and collect service. Click on this link, fill in the form, and collect your book!

Alternatively, we have QR codes dotted around the school and also on our Twitter page which will also take you to the form.

There are also vast selections of eBooks and Audiobooks available on Libby and BorrowBox – both of which are available on your iPads. You’ll need your library card number or your PIN, so if you don’t have those then email me at gw19mcgregormark@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk

More updates in February where we will be back up and running to full capacity plus the return of the Manga Club, the EAL reading group and other exciting events!

Holyrood Library – Summer Term

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Thank you Helpers!

Here’s a round up of some of the fun we’ve had in May/ June:

Most days start with a “Good Morning” on library Teams. We check in with each other and make sure everyone is having a good day.

We enjoyed fun quizzes for ‘Earth Day’, and ‘Oceans Day’, finding out which animals each of us resembles!

On Empathy Day we chatted about empathy and how we can look out for each other. We put up a book display of Self-help books, and recommended our favourite authors.

“I recommend self-help books because it does a lot of good for my mental health and self-esteem. I really like the author Fearne Cotton. She uses examples that I can relate to” (S3 Pupil)

We made a Book display for Euro 2021, and prepared books to give to our visiting P7 pupils.

Our Library Helpers have been fantastic, whether helping with book displays, activities, or just chilling out with friends,

Thank you so much to everyone who has borrowed books, helped out either in person or on library Teams or simply just been there for company. Thanks also to Laraib and Fiza our Duke of Edinburgh helpers. You have all been amazing!

Can’t wait to see everyone next year and have even more fun.

Bon Voyage!

Holyrood Secondary Library, Book Week Scotland

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Book Week Scotland, 16th -22nd November

Pupil review

Here is our first pupil recommendation from Fatima S3, who does superb work helping out in the Library setting up book displays, and helping with crafts for the younger pupils. She is almost half way through this book by wonderful Scottish author Lindsay Littleson.

“I recommend ‘The Mixed-Up Summer of Lily McLean’. I really enjoyed reading it. It talks about summer, family and friends”.

We’ve also been using books to find out about Millport, which is the setting for part of this really exciting story.

We hope that other pupils will read this book, and also the next book by Lindsay Littleson, called ‘The Awkward Autumn of Lily McLean’

Here at Holyrood, Book Week Scotland is one of the highlights of our year ! We can’t wait to get started with celebrating books and reading, and join in the fun with authors, book lovers and the reading community all over Scotland!

We hope to be joining in with some of the online events listed here:

Book Week Scotland programme of events

In addition, we will be reading, sharing books, and holding our own celebration events all week:

How many Scottish authors and books set in Scotland can we read? There may also be some pupil book reviews!

Competition for S1 – design your own mini-book on a Scottish theme Collect an instruction sheet from the Library…. easy and fun! All entries will be displayed in the Library and you could win a prize.
Senior pupils will be reading stories from this anthology of writing about the ‘Future’. You can collect your free copy from the Library. Happy reading!

We will be sharing some of our work in pictures and writing all through the week, and hope that as many pupils and staff as possible will join us to celebrate Book Week Scotland

Holyrood Secondary #LibrariesWeek

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To celebrate #LibrariesWeek 6th-10th October, this blog has been written by one of our most enthusiastic and book – loving classes: Miss Belton’s S3 English Class, who are pleased to share their book recommendations with you.

Jared “My favourite book is The Avatar. As it was the only book in this series in the library, I also had to borrow other books. The library is fun because most of the books are fun to read, and this makes your reading better. I hope that you will try to read more too”.

Fantastic advice, thank you Jared.

Sawdah is one of our most enthusiastic readers and it is always great to see her in the Library. “My favourites include Cry Baby, the Story of Tracy Beaker, and the Dockside series, because there are so many titles in the series to read!”

Abdou “The book that I like reading is the Last Kids on Earth series by Max Brailler. It’s a book about monster zombies and kids surviving the apocalypse”.

Thanks to Abdou, other pupils have now enjoyed this series too!

Azeem likes “ all the Roald Dahl books, also comic books, and books about football”.

Denis and Mahmod both enjoyed a book that they read in class The Housekeeper’s Lunch – “this book was really funny and great because the housekeeper couldn’t have his lunch because the crows ate it all”.

Faizan says “My favourite book is Five Famous Fairy Tales”, This is a superb choice, containing tales by Hans Anderson and brothers Grimm. Abdullah recommends history books, and he has read many history and other non-fiction titles.

Fatima says “my favourite book is Dork Diaries. I like to read them because they are fun to read”. This is a very popular choice

This dedicated Class is always up for a challenge, and successfully completed last year’s Glasgow Libraries Christmas Reading Challenge, receiving certificates to mark their outstanding achievement.

As an experiment, we also tried reading as a Book Group – our chosen titles were Under the Skin, by Cathy Macphail, and the Fastest Boy in the World, by Elizabeth Laird. However, we decided that we preferred reading our own choice of books (although we do still like to have quiet discussion and share ideas together).

Miss Kindness, Librarian says “It has been a pleasure to see how this class have grown in enthusiasm and confidence over the past two years. I look forward to more fun projects and reading challenges with them”.

We would all like to say a big thank you to Miss Belton for all her patience, and enthusiasm, and for making the time for us to go to the library.

We hope you have a wonderful retirement and enjoy more time to read books and have new adventures.”.

End of the year post!

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You might have noticed that I have been a bit quiet on the old blog front lately. I have been busy trying to devise the weird and wonderful ways in which I can continue to provide a service to you in times of social distancing.

As we well know, things are not set in stone and everything is subject to change. However, assuming that we are sticking to our current plans, then the library will look slightly different for a little while.

Firstly, we will need to provide you with books remotely. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to browse books in the way you used to. On the plus side, everyone will be able to request any books or authors they want and if you let me know what sort of books you enjoy reading then I can do all the work for you and find something I’ll think you enjoy! These will likely be done on a class to class basis and I can even also bring your requested books down to you. Any individual requests can be made by emailing me directly: gw19mcgregormark@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk

We will also be further promoting our online services to you throughout the year. The good news is that we now have Borrowbox and Freegal on your school iPads and we are hoping to have more by August! You can access any of the eLibrary features here: https://libcat.csglasgow.org/web/arena/home. To access them, all you need is your library card number (the D00… one above the barcode) and your PIN (I can provide that! Just let me know).

Events might also look different but we will work with everyone to make sure that we can still bring you some excellent author events throughout the year, regardless of what restrictions may or may not be in place!

As for clubs, namely the Manga Club, we will need to have a look at where we are in August but it is my sincerest hope that we can get any clubs or groups back up and running as soon as possible.

Finally, I would like to again take an opportunity to thank all the pupils and staff at St. Andrew’s for making me feel welcome and part of the team in my first school year. It has been a challenging year and next year looks set to come with its own challenges but we will get through it and can look forward to a Library Grand Re-Opening party when everyone is allowed to visit the library again.

Enjoy your summer break everyone. You’ve definitely earned it!

Pride month

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Happy Pride month to everyone!

To celebrate, this month’s post will be about how the school LGBT+ club and the library have worked together to create a more inclusive space.

The first step was looking at a very inclusive library (and one of Ms Spaltro’s favourite): the Glasgow Women Library. In October Ms McMillan, the librarian and the LGBT+ club visited the GWL guided by the archivist, Nicola Maksymuik and one of the volunteers, May. We saw unique material and art works; but also discussed equality and respect. Very actual, isn’t it? A new hobby was also discovered: badge making! So loved by everyone that Ms McMillan bought a badge maker for our school as well.

This event – and a Glasgow school librarians training – has encouraged us to fill our library with rainbow flags labels. After a library assistants meeting, it was decided to stick a rainbow flag on the spine of every LGBT+ friendly book in the library, to help every reader to find books with LGBT+ themes. It took months to be ready, but the success was immediate. A handful of pupils from the LGBT+ club became our book reviewers: they have been in charge of reading the new books and identifying if they were LGBT+ friendly and suggesting them to the other pupils. Some titles? Giant Days by John Allison, Heartstopper by Alice Oseman and The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta.

February is the LGBT+ history month and has meant for our assistant lots of debates while they have prepared an amazing book display with a rainbow flag donated by the drama department. Not to forget the brilliant badges and informative material that the Creative Industries class has produced and distributed across the school.

The cherry on the top of the cake has been the brilliant event with Dean Atta thanks to the Wee Write! festival. Meanwhile the library team was working on a more inclusive space; Mr Beaton’s S2 class took part in Words that burn project (check the previous post) and Dean Atta was one of the authors involved. The librarian was so impressed that when the opportunity came up, Ms Spaltro wanted the pupils to meet him. Our LGBT+ readers made sure that every pupil who was going to take part in the event had read the Black Flamingo and prior to the event we chatted about the book for weeks. After having listened to the author’s presentation, we discussed coming out, families, integration and Drag Queens. It has been absolutely stunning to see the pupils so engaged and informed. So proud of them and thanks a lot to the Wee Write! Festival team and of course Dean Atta for inspiring us all.

What’s next?

Keep having these bookish conversations that encourage events and activities, keep hosting inspiring authors and support every library user to feel confident and welcome in the library. Last but not least, we are working hard to achieve a bronze LGBT+ chart for our school!

For the events pictures, please check our twitter account: @KsSchoolLibrary

Fàilte gu Bloga Leabharlainn Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu!

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Welcome to the Glasgow Gaelic School library blog page! I will be using this blog to keep everyone up to date with the goings on with the library whilst we are in lock down and without a physical library (and beyond).

Firstly, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would like to draw everyone’s attention again to the Glasgow Libraries eLibrary feature which pupils can access using the number on the back of their library card and their PIN. I can provide both so please get in touch with me at gw19mcgregormark@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk if you need either. It is a great service and gives you access to a range of features including books, magazines, audiobooks and music. Here’s the link to the main page.

Secondly, the Glasgow School Librarians have gotten together and compiled a Lockdown Reading list for your enjoyment! There are some good reads in here for adults and young people alike. It can be found here.

Finally, I would like to take another opportunity to thank all of the pupils and staff at the school for making me feel most welcome in my first few months here and I hope we can continue to improve the library and its services into the next school year!

EAL Event at Springburn

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Springburn Academy Library recently hosted an event in partnership with Skills Development Scotland which provided information for EAL pupils, parents and guardians on their post school options. The EAL department at Springburn has identified that pupils from overseas, including asylum seekers and refugees, do not have the same access to opportunities as everyone else, often due to legal and financial constraints.

Much of the information and advice given to them needs to be tailored to their circumstances.

There were several speakers, including the school’s EAL Teacher, Graham Park, who opened the event, and Stephen Coyle, Careers Coach, who explained the SDS service offer to pupils. Graham Thomson from Glasgow Kelvin College, covered the various learning pathways offered by the Further Education sector, and his colleague Norma Stewart, described the ESOL programmes and the application process. Shukrya Addow of SDS delivered a presentation on the benefits of undertaking Foundation, Graduate and Modern Apprenticeships. She was followed by Paula Blair from the University of Glasgow, who discussed the university application process and widening access to Higher Education. Ian Maclellan of the University of Strathclyde, discussed their Asylum Seeker Scholarship Fund, and Angeline Mwafulirwa spoke about how she benefited from the Fund and her subsequent career path. The final speaker was Alan Reekie of SDS, who touched on funding issues and the eligibility criteria for learning opportunities for asylum seekers, refugees, EU citizens and international students.

Interpreters supported the event and the languages covered included Arabic, Portuguese, Mandarin and Urdu.