Tag Archives: the library young team

April @ St. Andrew’s

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!

The Library Young Team with Graeme Armstrong in Bannerman

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For our third, and final, author visit for this project we welcomed acclaimed author Graeme Armstrong who delivered a thought-provoking and inspiring talk to all our S3 pupils, who left the workshop theater buzzing!

Graeme Armstrong spoke about his experiences of youth gangs when he was our pupils’ age, and how bleak life was during that time – as he recalls in his novel “The Young Team“. He thankfully climbed out of that downward spiral and now is using his life experience as an instrument to raise awareness of gang culture’s dangers, and to improve young people’s lives. Thank you Graeme!

This Project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

The Library Young Team with Alan Bissett, and more

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Our second session for this project consisted in a brilliant visit from Scottish author Alan Bissett, where a group of S3 boys engaged with topics such as toxic masculinity, lad culture, and consent. Alan Bissett used his most recent book “Lads: a Guide to Respect and Consent” and his collaboration with Police Scotland’s campaign “Don’t Be That Guy” as foundations for a conversation with young boys on empathizing with the issue of women’s safety and giving advice on how to behave respectfully around girls and women. He also spoke about how socio-cultural expectations on boys and gender roles create a damaging barrier that prevents young men from talking about their emotions and mental health with potentially dangerous consequences. This useful advice was intervaled with some light-hearted banter and our S3 responded very positively to this visit – we all enjoyed it, thank you Alan!

This Project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

Genre tasting at the Parents’ Evening 🍽

More events happened in the library! Ms Greer from English and Ms Bortolato organised a book trattoria in the library for the latest parents’ evening and family learning.
The library got transformed in a little restaurant where parents and their children could choose from a menu of genres, familiarize themselves with junior fiction books and talk about their thoughts on the books they tasted.

The Manga Club contributed to this evening with a Manga Appetizers station where patrons could snack on manga history (typed up by our wee club members!) and famous comics while they waited to be seated. 🥡🥢

The Library Young Team- Libraries LYT up lives!

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St Mungo’s Academy library is a part of a wider library project called “The Library Young Team- Libraries LYT up lives!”

brian conaghan at the school assembly

This project runs concurrently in 10 secondary school libraries across Glasgow and Renfrewshire, with each school hosting 3 author sessions for S3-5 pupils. These sessions emphasize the advantages of reading, inspire teenagers to find connections between their experiences and the books they read, and assist them in navigating their thoughts, emotions, and feelings. The author sessions will delve into themes that resonate with their daily lives, ensuring relevance and engagement.

The three authors, Graeme Armstrong, Brian Conaghan, and Alan Bissett, serve as positive male reading role models. Their books delve into gang culture, covering topics such as reputation, respect, and retaliation. The sessions will focus on harm reduction by exploring the reasons why young people join gangs, including the desire for acceptance, protection, a sense of identity, and feelings of belonging.

St. Mungo’s Library had the privilege of hosting Brian Conaghan on the 21st of February. His work primarily focuses on the lives and relationships of working-class teens, as well as characters who exist on the margins of society. During his presentation, he inspired our S4 pupils by sharing his journey of overcoming challenges with words and reading to achieve success as a writer, despite facing adversity along the way.

The session sparked a curiosity in our youth- two of them were inspired to borrow his book!

We are looking forward to the upcoming visits from the two other writers and we hope that they will generate equal, if not greater, enthusiasm towards reading and literacy.

This Project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

The Library Young Team – Session 1

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Bannerman High School is among 10 secondary schools across Glasgow City Council and Renfrewshire to take part in a project co-run with Renfrewshire School Libraries. The project is called “The Library Young Team” and it is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund. It will see three thought-provoking authors visit the participating schools to talk to S3/4/5 pupils about topics as gang culture, crime, toxic masculinity, and ways out of these suffocating environments – as well as share some of their writing journeys.

For the first session of this project, it was great to have Brian Conaghan at Bannerman High School introducing his book “Treacle Town” to a crowd of S6 pupils, talking about gang culture in Scotland but also giving writing advice to senior pupils working on their English portfolio. The project will see Alan Bissett and Graeme Armstrong visiting the school in the next couple of months.

This Project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.