Spring Read 2009 authors announced!

Spring Read 2009 - the East Ayrshire Schools Book Festival - will kick off in February with author visits to most of the schools in the area.

We have 3 great authors appearing this year -

Catherine MacPhail (who appeared at JHA in 2008, and everyone loved her!) - author of Tribes, Fighting Back, Roxy's Baby and Worse Than Girls ...

K. M. Grant - author of How The Hangman Lost His Heart, Blood Red Horse, Blue Flame and Blaze of Silver ...

Catherine Forde - author of Sugarcoated, Firestarter, Skarrs, Fat Boy Swim and I See You Baby ...

If you are interested in meeting these authors in person you can sign up for the author visits (just give me your name). Visits will take place between February and March in schools throughout East Ayrshire. Details to be confirmed soon!

Library User Consultation

Every two years I consult with Library users (pupils and staff) about what the Library offers and what users would like it to offer, i. e. resources such as books, magazines, software and any other services. I use the results of the consultation when I plan Library projects and how to spend my budget in the coming year.

Staff and pupils have been issued with questionnaires about the Library. If you have not received a questionnaire and would like one extra copies are available from the Library.

You can also take part in the consultation by submitting any suggestions via the 'Comments' link below.

Thanks!

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.