Library News – JMAC- The Blog Experience

Mirror Journalist Returns to her Roots

Geraldine McKelvie, former student and investigative journalist at The Daily Mirror visited the JMAC class and other students with an interest in moving towards a career in journalism and the media.

During the visit she spoke about her 11 years of experience in the journalism industry. After leaving university she worked her way up from small local newspapers to her current position working for a national tabloid in London. Geraldine is now a top investigative reporter who always has to carry her passport with her as she never knows where in the world her next assignment will be

Jack McClung, a senior pupil in the JMAC journalism class said “It was really inspirational to see someone from our school community move on in life to become a successful journalist. It was also interesting to hear about all the projects she has worked on”.

Miss McGrogan, head of the English department also commented “It was fabulous to see a former pupil of mine doing so well in a field related to English. It was fascinating to hear about the very important work she does. It was also really good to hear about what journalism is like in the modern world with social media and how it’s changing”.

Geraldine commented “It’s really encouraging to see that even though journalism is going through a transition, there’s still so many young people potentially interested in going into a career in journalism”.

Reading Club ‘Pages’

Mr McCrory and Miss McDowall began a reading club to encourage S1-S2 pupils to read for fun. Books are brought in for the children based on what they want to read. Pierce said “I’ve got a book by the historian James Holland. He’s made a bunch of children’s books about the battle of Britain but using a first person view”
Miss McDowall said “I think it’s just the idea were trying to get of the stigma that reading is something associated with school. It’s that idea it can be fun.”
One of the girls involved, Millie said “Everybody’s really nice. There’s nobody who will pick on you for liking a type of book or not liking a type of book. It’s basically just really cosy and relaxing” Sara said “I like coming and meeting new people and reading,” The club currently has 10-15 pupils at a time but many more are welcome

Reading Aloud

St Aidan’s pupils got back in touch with their roots and visited the primary schools. The younger years got a chance to revisit their old schools to read aloud to the primary 2’s. A handful of pupils were taken to each one of St. Aidan’s feeder schools by the school librarian Miss McGough.
St Aidan’s encourages its pupils to read both fact and fiction and the younger years were excited to visit their old primary and help the new students enjoy reading as well. Both the primary 2’s and St. Aidan’s pupils enjoyed the experience and would do it again.

S1 Book Giveaway

As part of the Read to Succeed initiative, S1 students got the chance to get themselves a free book, funded by PEFT.

On Wednesday, during the afternoon the students were taken out of their classes to pick a book from a wide selection of authors who took part in the Read to Succeed program.

Our school librarian, Mrs McGough commented that “myself along with the English Department want to encourage students to read more in the school, and this was part of our initiative to do so”

All 184 first year students got the chance to order a book of their choice to take home and keep.

Scholastic Book Fair

Recently, the school librarian, Mrs McGogh held the annual Scholastic Book Fair in our very own school Library. Students from S1 to S3 were able to visit the library during English to buy books from a wide variety. Our librarian, Mrs McGogh commented that “there’s a great selection of books, there’s also prizes and free book tokens “.

There was a lot of cool stationary and handy school supplies available at the book fair that the students really loved. The students were also able to take part in fun competitions,with some being lucky enough to take home special prizes.

The event was a huge success and many books were sold. Half of the funds raised by the book fair will go towards buying new books for the Library.

Alex Scarrow Authors Visit

Alex Scarrow, known for his series Time Riders and Remade, came to St Aidan’s high school to visit first year pupils and talk about his books. He started as a graphic designer for video games.

Over a year he pitched over 30 games to his bosses and not one of them got made. It got to the point he felt like he was literally wasting his time designing these games. His direct manager told him to make games shooting games because kids only wanted something they could shoot. Alex felt that his direct manager was insulting kids and downgrading they’re abilities. He thought he could do so much more but his bosses told him they’d make so much more money with first person shooters. Alex quit that day.

This prompted him to start writing his books. Alex started writing adult books but thought it was too boring to write for. He began to write for the younger generations because “you guys are more open minded than adults are. Adults get annoyed when you break rules. You guys don’t mind (when I break rules) which makes it more fun to me)”

Time Riders was based on one of these games he had pitched. Time riders is about an agency made up of three kids who cheated death and now travel through time to fix history broken by time travel. The first time rider’s book came out on 4th February 2010 and the series spans 9 books.

Alex visits schools, talking to 11-12 year olds specifically, about his books. Throughout the year he visits schools and libraries, giving talks and running writing workshops.