JHA Library Wiki is here!

JHA Library has begun its own wiki - a collaborative website for the school community. The wiki is in its early stages but you will be able to see from the menu that it could be extremely useful for the school as an addition to an official school website.

Have a look - www.jhalibrary.wikispaces.com

The idea is that staff in the school from any department can add resources to their own pages for pupils and other staff to access, anywhere with an Internet connection. For example, homework tasks, worksheets, links to websites, etc.

I hope to do an in-service course on using the wiki in the near future - TBC.

Bloggers of the Month announced!

S1 and S2 Bloggers of the Month have been announced for October. These awards are given to the pupils who have written the most outstanding book reviews in their year group.

Well done to -

S1 Winner Molly Gladman (1Y)

S1 Runner-up Kelsey Caldow (1B)

S2 Winner Cassie Wright (2R)

S2 Runner-up Shannon Alderson (2W)

Primary / Secondary Literacy Event

On September 8 the Library hosted a Literacy Event featuring the acclaimed Scots author Matthew Fitt. This is was an excellent event over the whole day, with visits from P7 pupils from New Farm Primary, Onthank Primary and Silverwood Primary.

Primary 7 and S1/2 pupils joined together to hear Matthew talk about the languages we speak. He encouraged pupils (and staff) to recognise the value of oor ain tongue, the Scots language - a rich and diverse language that many of us use everyday together with English and other languages (for example Polish, French, Urdu, Spanish, Gaelic).

Matthew also read from some of the books he has written / translated, for example King O The Midden: Manky, Mingin Rhymes in Scots and The Eejits (Scots version of Roald Dahl's The Twits). You'll be able to find these and more of Matthew's books in the Library. Have a look at Matthew's new website for Scots language activities - www.itchy-cool.com.

Finally, I'd like to thank the staff and pupils from the primaries who attended, and of course the S1/S2 pupils from JHA. Everyone behaved brilliantly and helped make it a great event.

New Read To Succeed Sites

The Read To Succeed sites are now up and running for each individual English teacher. This means pupils in each S1 & S2 English class have their own webspace to review books etc.

You will see links to these new blogs on the right. Please have a look at what the kids in English have to say about the books they are reading.

Pupils who have written particularly excellent reviews will be rewarded with the Blogger of the Month competition, judged by pupils! Winners will be announced soon ...

Launch of Little Book of Poems and Stories

The Little Book of Poems and Stories has been published and is now available from the Library.

Congratultions to the contributors to this excellent little book (JHA pupils now in S1 & S2). The quality of writing is superb and these pupils should be very proud of their newly published book!

S1 Writers:

Becky King (1R / 1P3)
Lauren Connell (1B / 1P1)
Rebecca Gilroy (1Y / 1P7)
Marc Barclay (1Y / 1P8)
Jordan Strachan (1W / 1P5)
Diane Frew (1R / 1P4)
Shannon King (1R / 1P4)
Megan McGinney (1B / 1P1)
Rebecca Lacey (1Y / 1P7)
Jamie Martin (1W / 1P5)
Calhi Young (1G / 1P3)
Lee Craig (1R / 1P3)
Claire Murphy (1R / 1P4)
Abbie Cuthbert (1R / 1P3)
Courtney Craig (1G / 1P2)
Leroy Moue (1R / 1P4)
Dean Kooi (1Y / 1P6)
Angus Rae (1Y / 1P8)
Chloe Parnell (1G / 1P4)
Abbie McAlinden (1G / 1P3)
Ross Ferguson (1R / 1P4)
Ashleigh Boyd (1Y / 1P8)
Kalvin North (1G / 1P3)
Scott Robertson (1Y / 1P7)
Shannon Cooper (1R / 1P3)
Terri Wallace (1Y / 1P7)
Amy Stalker (1Y / 1P8)

S2 Writers:

Becky Moore (2G / 2P2)
Ryan Steel (2B / 2P2)
Dilyan Dunlop (2G / 2P2)
Shannon Alderson (2W / 2P5)
Robyn Anderson (2W / 2P6)
Lynsey Campbell (2B / 2P1)
Danielle Murray (2B / 2P1)
Jenna Gilroy (2G / 2P3)
Aiden Shaw (2G / 2P3)
Ryan Gordon (2R / 2P4)
Emma McCallum (2Y / 2P7)
Graeme Jardine (2B / 2P1)
Craig Smillie (2B / 2P1)
Gemma Adam (2G / 2P2)
Cassie Wright (2R / 2P4)
Chloe McCulloch (2R / 2P4)
Carolanne Murdoch (2W / 2P5)
Samantha Colthart (2W / 2P5)
Erin Hamilton (2Y / 2P6)
John Livingston (2Y / 2P7)

Readers' Cup Final

The Readers' Cup Final took place at Cumnock Academy on Monday 9 June - it was a great event, superbly organised by outgoing Librarian Ms Colquhoun. Unfortunately our team didn't win but we scored well in some rounds - good effort guys! If we had more opportunities to prepare in the weeks beforehand who knows how well we could have done ...

Congratulations go to Auchinleck Academy who won with a massive points total - the best so far. We will be back next year and hopefully challenging for the top spot!

Here is a pic of our team, left t0 right - Matthew, Alan, Lewis and John.

And here is a pic of our ever-cheerful supporters!

JHA Library on Librarything!

You can now search for Senior Fiction on the JHA Library pages on Librarything (www.librarything.com/catalog/jhalibrary). Librarything is an amazing site that contains lots of peoples' book collections (including some schools'), which you can search very easily. It also uses tags which makes browsing really easy and fun (especially if you use tag clouds).

Initially the JHA pages are for senior pupils choosing personal study books but hopefully I'll get the whole fiction collection on there for everyone to get access to. Please have a look, and remember it is a social networking site too so you can comment on books if you wish.

Return to Normal Library Business

The Library is now open as normal after the lengthy period of closure due to SQA exams. This has affected the groups we like to run at this time of year (Friday Library Group, Carnegie Shadowing Group, Readers' Cup Team, etc) hence the lack of activity on this site!

Catherine MacPhail at Spring Read 2008

On Wednesday JHA was host to an author event featuring the excellent Catherine MacPhail, with guests from Loudoun Academy and Stewarton Academy. Catherine's talk was superb, engaging the pupils in the creative process and providing her fans with insight into her well-known books.

I will be ordering additional copies of most of her novels due to great demand. Pictures of the event can be seen here.

Thanks to pupils and staff from Stewarton and Loudoun for being perfect guests. And thanks too to East Ayrshire School Librarians for organising the Spring Read events along with Pat Standen at East Ayrshire Libraries!

Readers' Cup 2nd Round Winners!

The 2nd round of the Readers' Cup took place P4 & P5 on Thursday 6th March (World Book Day). With guest quizmasters, prizes and sweets, this was an enjoyable event to liven up a dreich Thursday afternoon.

Congratulations to those who made it through to the final JHA team:

S1 - 1st place: Alan Reynold (1G); Joint 2nd place: Ryan Steel (1G) and John Priest (1B)

S2 - Joint 1st place: Lewis Moue (2R) and Matthew Griffen (2W)

There are more pics of the quiz at the side of the page.

Thanks also to Mr McGraw and Mr Chatham for being excellent Guest Quizmasters - both clearly watched Bamber Gascoigne when they were kids!

Catherine MacPhail site

The JHA Library Group have produced an amazing new website for our Spring Read visiting author, Catherine MacPhail. Please have a look at the site - www.freewebs.com/catherine-macphail/. There is lots of great info on the site as well as book reviews by the group, and you can also sign our guestbook!

Hopefully Catherine will be able to have a look at the site before her visit on 19th March. There are still some places free for this special event - if you'd like to attend just ask in the Library.

Book Oscars

As part of the Spring Read Book Festival 2008, Doon Academy is holding a Book Oscars and they are inviting you to vote. To do so just follow this link - http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/325920. I will post a message here with the results!

World Book Day & Readers' Cup 2nd Round

The Readers' Cup 2nd Round will be held on Thursday 6th March - World Book Day!

The S1 quiz will be held during P4 and the S2 quiz will be P5 (English periods). There will be special guest quizmasters and prizes for the winners.

Remember the winners will be representing the school at the Ayrshire Readers' Cup Final at Cumnock Academy in June.

Spring Read Author Visits

The plans for the Spring Read Book Festival are coming along - we now have dates etc for the author visits that JHA are involved in. Here they are:

Tuesday 4th March, 11.00 - 12.30 pm, Loudoun Academy
Janet Paisley (poet)
JHA attending along with Stewarton Academy.

Friday 14th March, 1.30 - 3.00 pm, Kilmarnock Academy
Nicola Morgan (author of Fleshmarket, Mondays Are Red, Highwayman's Curse)
JHA attending along with Grange, St. Joseph's, Loudoun and Stewarton.

*****Wednesday 19th March, 1.30 - 3.00 pm, JHA*****
Catherine MacPhail (author of Nemesis, Roxy's Baby, Run Zan Run & loads more)
Loudoun and Stewarton are our guests.

I think we've been very lucky in getting Catherine MacPhail - a major author with lots of books and a wide appeal for boys and girls.

More info on Catherine's visit to follow ...

Join the Library Group!

The Friday Library Group is starting again this year. If you are in S1 - S2 and like books, this is the group for you! We will meet on Friday lunchtimes in the Library (open for Group members only). Here are some of the things we'll do:

• Read and review some great new books
• Post reviews on the JHA Library blog
• Take part in activities such as Spring Read Book Festival, Ayrshire Readers' Cup and Shadowing the Carnegie
• Help organise author visit as part of Spring Read
• Go on visits to others schools

The Group starts on Friday 25th January at lunchtime. Please come along!

New Graphic Novels

There are some new arrivals in the Graphic Novels Collection. As well as additional volumes in popular series such as Ultimate Spider-Man and Runaways, we now have a few essential volumes in the Civil War series.

There are also some new titles in the Senior section, including 'Persepolis', due to be released as a film this year.

Ayrshire Readers' Cup

The quest to find the JHA team to compete in the Ayrshire Readers' Cup Final in May is about to begin!

Very soon all S1 and S2 English classes will be taking part in the 1st Round of the quiz. The top two scorers from each class will then enter the 2nd Round, which will take the form of seperate S1 and S2 quizzes held in the Library. The top two scorers will then make up the final team, proudly representing their school at this prestigious event!

Results will be posted here ...

Spring Read 2008

Plans are shaping up for this year's Spring Read - East Ayrshire Schools' Reading Festival. Authors will be visiting schools during March, and as before pupils' will get the chance to visit other schools to hear them speak.

Authors booked for this year are Janet Paisley, Nicola Morgan and Catherine MacPhail - 3 major writers coming to a school near you!

Dates and venues will be announced soon ...