25 September 2007

Book Swap 2 - 4 October

Next week there will be a Book Swap in the Library at lunchtime on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

How does it work?
- Bring in a book in reasonably good condition that you no longer want, which is suitable for your age group
- Receive a token in exchange
- Exchange that token for another book.
No money changes hands.

Each day there will be different books, depending on what people bring, so it's worth a visit every day. You can also keep your token for the next Book Swap (or I can keep it for you).

19 September 2007

Booked Up

This autumn every 11-year-old in England will be able to choose a free book from a list of 12 specially selected titles. This is a new national programme called Booked Up, supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. This week I will be giving girls a magazine with all the details. We also have a set of the books to help the girls make their choice, and we will spend time discussing the titles. In order to meet the ordering deadline I will need to know each girl's selection by 26 September. There is more information at http://www.bookedup.org.uk.

16 September 2007

A Year of Reading

Congratulations to the many Year 7 girls who have made a fantastic start to their reading year by completing the summer reading challenge. It’s the best year ever! However it doesn’t matter if you didn’t do this, as we’re now continuing with the Reading Olympics where you still have the opportunity to record summer reading.

Reading Olympics is a promotion which I devised to try and encourage wider reading, progressing from bronze to silver, then gold level. Many will soon be reading towards their silver level. The scheme will run until the end of June 2008, and continue into Year 8. Certificates will be awarded for each stage, with Gold Certificates presented at Junior Prize-giving, in front of the whole school, in July.

Each girl in Year 7 now has a Reading Olympics record card and will be encouraged to complete any remaining activities. Like the summer reading challenge the record card has spaces for readers to note the author and title of each book. It doesn’t have to be a school library book.

I would be grateful if adults or older brothers or sisters at home could help to sign the record card. All that is needed is a brief discussion about the book or a few simple questions to ascertain the book has been read. Support for reading at home can be a great motivator, and I do hope the scheme will encourage the girls to read more widely and to try new authors and genres. Parents and carers - perhaps you would even like to shadow your child’s reading during the forthcoming National Year of Reading which will run from January to December 2008.

06 September 2007

Online reading lists

A selection of my reading suggestions, for Years 7, 8 and 9, is now available online.

The service is provided free by a website called Lovereading4Schools.co.uk, an online bookshop. The lists are very attractive; book covers are featured, a brief synopsis, and author information is also given for each book. Many opening extracts are available too.

This is another way of disseminating lists of recommended reads I already send home regularly to various year groups, and and they can't be thrown away! Should you wish, the books are available to buy at 25% discount. Lovereading4Schools is endorsed and supported by the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations.

To see the online lists go to:
http://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk/viewschool/1870/favourite

You will be asked to register. It's free. You need to give an email address, and a password that you can remember. Once you have registered you will need to LOGIN each time you visit the school reading lists. After registration you will be sent to the library's book page and there just click on any of the book lists to browse the books in those lists.

Don't forget to bookmark the page to make it easier for you next time you visit the site.

03 September 2007

New name, new look

Welcome to the new look Library News from Our Lady's Abingdon!

Since the school's name has changed I decided I would take the opportunity to change the look and name of the Library's weblog.

This follows on from http://olcsslib.blogspot.com/ where you can still see the archive of past news.