December 15, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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For the last eight weeks since the start of term, musicians and singers (pupils and staff) have been rehearsing for the school’s annual carol service at the Stromness Parish Church. We have a lovely selection of festive tunes, traditional carols and choir pieces.
This event takes place on Monday 19th December 2016 at 7:30pm at the Stromness Parish Church and all are welcome to attend.
December 6, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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The annual poetry picnic took place on Thursday 6th October. Over the course of the two lunch sessions, around 20 pupils and some staff gathered in the library at lunchtime to listen to and read out poems on the theme of ‘Messages‘ as well as partake in some snacks and drinks which the Librarian provided. Over half of them read out poems to the rest, some a couple of times.
Once again we also revisited the popular ‘Tongue Twister Game’ which has now been a feature of this event for a good few years. It is always well received.
Participants were asked to evaluate the event and all provided a positive response to it. Some suggestions / comments were also provided.
[Need] A bit more time.
Loved it.
Good fun and thanks for the food.
More time to do this.
It was fun and good and I think we liked all the games.
Excellent and friendly event – a small but goodly company!
Christmas event.
The idea of having a Christmas event is good, but timings could be tricky with the library being very busy with booked classes.
Spooky Happenings – The ghost story telling even would normally follow NPD, but unfortunately a bereavement and subsequent absence meant there was no time available to prepare for an event at the beginning of term immediately after the October break.
October 3, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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The library is as busy, if not busier than ever, especially during leisure times – in the morning before classes start and at lunchtimes. Pupils can do a variety of activities at these times. There are the regular activities, described below, as well as our annual events. Our Poetry Picnic is this Thursday, 6th October to celebrate National Poetry Day. The theme is ‘Messages’. After the October Holidays we will have another lunchtime session of storytelling for Spooky Happenings.
A small cohort of pupils come to the library before its official opening time, presumably because they want first dibs on the PCs, but they come on the condition that they help with shelving and shelf tidying. Their ‘enthusiasm’ for this means the shelving trolley is usually not too full. Sometimes books aren’t in the correct place, but this is a minor inconvenience. Mornings are often the time when some pupils are frantically finishing (in some cases starting, I suspect) homework, or printing it out. Others will read quietly, but in the main mornings are a gentle run in to the school day with a bit of a chat.
Many will go on the computers to play games in the morning or at lunchtime, although those wanting to do school work will always get priority. This system seems to work well, with only the occasional gripe when someone is asked to come off a PC to let someone work. We keep an eye to the games pupils are playing as well as ensuring both games and any YouTube videos they watch are appropriate for viewing in the school. Pupils are aware of and accept these limitations to use.
Board games such as chess, draughts and Connect4 are popular at lunchtime. These are kept on shelves so pupils can help themselves. A new Draughts set has recently been purchased and donated by the Librarian as we only had one set. One wonders whether there is scope for a peedie competition?
Magic the Ga
thering, an RPG card game where opponents battle each other is still very popular, both at lunchtime and during Friday afternoon activities. It was introduced to the library in the late 90’s and has been played ever since. We have also run a couple of tournaments in the past, and the time may well be ripe for another one. Watch this space!
Friday afternoon Role Playing Games activity is also more popular than ever with 23 pupils attending. Eight play Magic the Gathering in the Upper Library whilst the rest play Dungeons & Dragons, in three groups. This year we have 7 beginners which bodes well for the future of this activity. The beginners group of 5 very enthusiastic S1 pupils is DM’d (Dungeon Mastered) by the Librarian, Mrs Sinclair, playing the published Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver from Wizards of the Coast. An S3 pupil leads two older beginners in his more experienced group of players playing a 5e D&D homebrew Sci-fi type of game. A further group led by an S3 girl playing 3.5e D&D. More information on the history of D&D at Stromness Academy can be found here.
PC “Can I use toilet?”
NPC “Outhouse is out back”
3 min later same question
NPC Same reply
Pupil asks again
DM “Oh YOU want to go”
On Tuesday after school a small group of five experienced D&D players meet. This includes one of the pupil DMs so it gives him a chance to play as well. Currently we are playing the Curse of Strahd campaign set in Ravenloft. This adventure will be full of suspense, a little measure of horror and maybe even some hope. The characters find themselves transported through mists to a different place to where they were the night before. They are in a forest clearing near a road. They have two options: go east into the mist (back to where they think they came from) or go west. They find out that the mist is rather dangerous so go west along the forest track.
Player: “How would I know I am in a forest?”
DM: “Erm!” Looks at other players.
Other players: Bemused! Roll eyes!
The characters find their way to the village of Barovia where two little children ask them to chase a monster out of their house. The players are now currently ‘stuck’ in The Death House (no it isn’t really as bad as it sounds – actually, yes it is!) which is an introductory adventure getting them used to the emphasis on the role-playing aspect of this campaign, as opposed to the dice rolling of lots of combat. It is making the players think much more carefully about their character’s actions, how they work together as a group and how they affect the other characters in the group. For example, maybe hitting a group of statuettes with a maul, which you saw briefly in the guise of your adventuring companions, might have consequences! One of the party took a lot of damage!
The main thing with D&D is that the players have fun. The great thing is it also teaches pupils lots of skills in terms of numeracy, literacy and social skills. More information is found on the D&D page of this blog.
September 14, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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For those entering senior years, especially 6th year, longer essays and dissertations will feature. You will be expected to use references and produce a bibliography which meets defined standards.
To help you, a guide to Referencing & Bibliography is available from the Resources section of the blog in the Documents Library. Here there are also library guides, help sheets and Youth Achievement Award documentation.
September 1, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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So, the ever repeating cycle of a school year starts again. This Librarian, after 24 years (is it really that long) is already up and running welcoming old and new pupils and staff alike to the library. The summer proved busy (yep, I am in during some of the holidays) with many jobs being done.
What does a School Librarian get up to when working during the school holidays? Well, here is some of what is done:
So, we are now second week in and it doesn’t really feel like we have been away. Fresh faces and our regulars are visiting the library during break times. Computers, board games and Magic the Gathering are proving as popular as ever.
We are still fairly quiet during classtime, but a small number of 6th year have discovered that the library can be quite a good place to study during their ‘free’ periods – would like to maybe see more. S1 and S2 classes have started to come for library periods where they will be doing library and information literacy skills as well as personal reading. Next week, though is when it will get busier with the Geography Department starting their research projects – Europe for S1 and Earth Forces for S2. This is when we will be really busy.
Time to prepare by putting the relevant book displays up, then!
May 16, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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We will soon be welcoming P7s to the school for their transition days. They will visit the library for a short time to have a look around and do a couple of activities to introduce them to the library and its facilities.
The following presentation is an introduction to the library and is useful for P7s, new and current pupils and staff alike.
March 7, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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This year’s World Book Day was celebrated on Thursday 3rd March. At lunchtime there was an informal gathering where we ate snacks, had hot chocolate and discussed books, as well as reading extracts. We also had an author / title pairs game.
Records show that 14 pupils signed in to the event, although there were more about who didn’t sign the attendance sheet.
Pupils visiting the library during WBD and in the following week are will be requested to fill in a mini survey indicating their favourite books, and authors. Surveys such as these are useful for gauging current reading trends and enabling more informed book purchase decisions to be made.
Stromness Books & Prints once again allowed me to raid their shelves for some books to sell at our Peedie Book Fair as well as some WBD bunting. A small number were purchased.
WBD Book tokens were issued and could be exchange for the free £1 books available in the library as part of the Peedie Book Fair. A small number of £1 books are still available, as are book tokens if any pupil has yet to receive one.
Running up to the end of term, there is a National Book Token design competition. Pupils are encouraged to take part and design an image for National Book Tokens which will be used on the token cards. Official templates and entry forms are available from the library or can be found here.
A winner will be decided in school – Easter Egg and house points for prizes. All entries will then be forwarded to the national competition.
Comments
Enjoyable. PR
The matching thing was kinda fun. HR
It was a good event. Nothing to improve! JC
Very good. KC
Very good. JL
Enjoyable as always. Perhaps we should encourage the students more to bring in and read [from]their own books too. MB
More snacks. More time. JL
It was very good. IT
March 2, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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On Thursday 25th February we welcomed local illustrator. Tony O’Donnell. He is probably best know for his work for Ivy the Terrible in The Beano in the mid 2000s (he has signed our library copies). He has also illustrated football stories, done some Sci-fi work and worked on Marvel’s Ghostbusters.
Locally, he does private commissions and freelance work – illustrations, artwork, logos and caricatures, as well as teaching community evening classes and, of course, coming in to our school to run a workshop. He was last here in 2011. He also has run a local youth club and will be running a youth Judo club in the near future.
Over the course of the split lunch around 20 pupils and one member of staff had a chance to have a look at some of Tony’s own work which showed us the variety of work he has done and thus is able to do. He also demonstrated how to draw Ivy the Terrible and a ‘superhero’ face. Pupils were also able to bring their lunch in with them and tea, coffee and hot chocolate and a tasty treat were provided. This event loosely tied-in with the Stan Lee Excelsior Award for Graphic Novels, judged by young people. This year we have about ten pupils shadowing the award, who are rapidly making their way through the books. Most of these pupils took part in the workshop.
We would like to thank Tony for giving up some of his time to share his skills and knowledge.
It was really good and I enjoyed the drawings. KL
I thought it was very good. ST
Another comic event? HB
Competition. More time. JL
Very good, possibly better if longer. JL
I really liked the cartoon drawing. (Anon)
Terrifically encouraging! Could be longer. MB
February 1, 2016
by Mrs Sinclair
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It has been some time since the last post here. January has been and gone and we are already in February. A lot of things have been going on in the library as shown below (in no particular order).
Activities: Dungeons & Dragons – The increasingly popular D&D activity on Tuesday after school and Friday afternoons continues. On Tuesdays, a small group of 5-6 pupils meets to play a game run by myself. We are using the 5th edition Starter set running The Lost Mines of Phandelver adventure. It is proving quite taxing for the pupils’ characters at times. Just a pity we only have 50 minutes to play it in.
On Friday afternoons, there are three D&D groups run by pupils. This gives me a chance to play for a change, in a slightly steampunk game designed and run by a second year pupil. This game also is a bit of a hybrid between 4e and 5e which is working fairly well. Our characters are running from an army and have now found themselves in a cave system to get through the mountains. We were last seen to be trying to deal with a horde of goblins and a sleepy troll cuddling a chicken – don’t ask!
Lunchtimes – The library continues to be a busy place with anywhere between half a dozen and 30 pupils visiting, depending on time, over the course of the split lunch. Computers are well used, mostly for leisure use, but work will always get priority. Some folks come in to read and / or chat quietly which in most cases is acceptable, but when noise levels rise words will be said.
It is important that food and drink are NOT brought into the library. This Librarian was rather put out on the weather closure last Friday – tidying a very messy fiction section is tedious enough but to find stale, hard, mouldy bread and empty bottles of milk shake behind the books was beyond a joke.
Tidying in progress. The books on the floor indicate how much has been randomly shelved and needing put in the right section, let alone those just dumped at the end of shelves. Please help to keep everything tidy.
More words will be said about this. Both the Junior and Senior Fiction sections have now bee given a good tidy and I would hope that library users respect this and take responsibility for helping to keep everything tidy and food free.
The trading card game, Magic the Gathering, continues to be very popular as a self-directed lunchtime activity and I am not averse to a game or two myself. MtG is also a popular Friday afternoon activity. A couple of other table top games have also been tried – Necromunda and another, whose name currently escapes me. Warhammer occasionally features too.
Lessons – January was fairly quiet in terms of class bookings with the English department library periods being the only ones. In mid-February S2 PSE will have five weeks in here doing Careers Information Literacy Skills prior to their S3 subject choice. Planning meetings, emails and discussions have already taken place and the tricky logistics appear to have been worked out – time will tell.
Last term, S1 pupils submitted ‘alternative book reviews’ as part of the Library & Information Literacy Skills course. They could do whatever they wanted, whether it was a poster, mobile, model or game as long as it wasn’t a traditional written review. Their imagination was the only limit. A great selection of ideas was produced. Pupils, in library period, spoke about what they did and about the book. The work was displayed in the English corridor and now some is in the library.
Recently S1 and S2 pupils, during library periods, were given the opportunity to browse catalogues, leaflets and the excellent Teen Titles magazine and make some selections for the library. This gives them an opportunity to get involved in stock choices. Budget constraints do mean that not everyone’s suggestions can be acted upon, but at least they can go on a wishlist.
Careers Resources – We are expecting a delivery of new careers books any day now (weather and boats (or planes) permitting). Back in November / December an offer of free books was flagged up on School Librarians’ Network and I looked into it. In this economic climate, this was too good an offer to miss so a number of books on different careers were ordered. Parents or pupils interested in getting their own copies can find a list of resources available here: How2Become. The website itself could also offer useful careers and choice information. More information on these books will be provided in due course, when they arrive in school.
Links to careers websites and LiveBinders are available in the LibLinks section of the blog.
Stan Lee Excelsior Award for Graphic Novels & Manga – At the time of writing the eight graphic novels on the 2016 shortlist should be winging their way to Orkney, having been delayed by lack of stock. This is frustrating as the order was placed just before Christmas and we have now lost a month of reading the books and shadowing this award. The display is nearly read and just awaiting the addition of the books. Pupils are invited to come along to a meeting on Thursday so that we can get the shadowing of this award started – books or no books! We have also ordered the five books of the Junior Award, even though we are not eligible to shadow that. They will make a good addition to our growing collection of Graphic Novels.
For further information on SLEA, please visit the website: Stan Lee Excelsior Award.
Online Resources – We have continued to subscribe to Complete Issues. This potentially useful resource has been under used despite termly reminders to staff and pupils. The subscription will be reviewed at the next renewal, but please do look at it in the meantime as it is potentially a very good resource for current and moral issues for discursive essay, etc. Further information can be found here. Username and password is available from the library.
FS 1 Feb 2016
December 4, 2015
by Mrs Sinclair
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Well, December is here and we are on the count down to the end of term. Not sure where the last few weeks have gone. The library has been very busy with the usual run of English library periods and research projects in History (Ancient Civilisations), Geography (Extreme Weather / Japan) and RMPS (World Religions) – see below for new LiveBinders. It has been ‘fun’ trying to timetable classes into the library as a number of the subjects clash but with a bit of juggling and the use of the upper library we have managed to accommodate most.
Subject Links
Two new Livebinders linking to topics being researched have recently been created. These can be found in the LibLinks – Subject Links section of the blog or directly, following the links below:
Poetry Competition
Back in October, if you remember, we had National Poetry Day. As part of that we ran a competition on the theme of ‘Light’. There were over fifty entries which had to be read, long listed, short listed and even shorter shortlisted. There was some really good work. It has taken time to decide on winners but they have been decided upon and the winning entries are are now on display in the library. They are as follows:
1st L Hales; 2nd M Linklater; 3rd K Loveridge
Highly Commended: J Leitch; S Foubister; N Sutherland; L Sinclair; K Wood; M Nicholson; J Muir; A Foubister; E Moar; J McElroy
Commended: J Crichton; G Isbister; A Pearson; H Kenyon; K Clark; C Wilson; G Mayes; A Towrie; Smith
World Book Day Award
Earlier this year the inaugural World Book Day Award was held. Schools were asked to respond to the phrase ‘Why we can’t live without books’. Although not successful, the library did receive some free books from James Patterson, author of children’s’ and young adult books. You can view the entry here: WoBod Entry Stromness Academy.
The second WoBod was launched recently (much earlier than last session) so once again pupils were asked to contribute to this. This time the question was ‘Where does your reading take you?’ Pupils responded by writing poems or other text, producing posters, a collage, a piece of origami and an advent calendar house where the windows opened to show various small pictures. The best were collated into a Prezi presentation and forwarded to the award organisers. This presentation isn’t yet available for general viewing and won’t be until judging and winners announcement on World Book Day next March. Meanwhile, some of the work produced is on display in the library.
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