Library Online

It is 200 years ago today since Charles Dickens, one of our greatest writers, was born. This site has lots of information about celebrations taking place around the world:

Dickens 2012 site

If you would like to read one of his books, please call in to the Senior School Library.

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: authors, books, Charles Dickens, writers

It is National Libraries Day tomorrow and I hope you are all going to visit your local public library. To celebrate, we asked all our lunchtime visitors to The Michael Parker Library to tell us what they like about their Library. The Helpers then tweeted the best ones on our Library_Online Twitter account:

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: #NLD12, National Libraries Day, Twitter

Why not read this site on your phone? Here is the QR code:

QR Code

To get our app, please follow these instructions:

Please download the iPhone and Android apps in the following locations.

1) iPhone app: http://itunes.apple.com/my/app/bloapp/id436962200?mt=8
2) Android app: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.infindo.bloapp.activities

Note: To add this blog, you simply need to snap the QR code with Bloapp. Alternatively you can search for this site’s name using the search function as well.

If this does not work, please let Mrs Robinson know so that she can sort it out!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: apps, news, QR Codes

Mrs Robinson has been back in school working over the Easter Holidays! She is not completely better yet, but is hoping that she will be able to return next term working part-time for the next few weeks.

You will be able to see some of the things she has been doing when you come into the Library. To help you find books more easily, she has been making new shelf labels:

Fiction Shelf Labels

Non-fiction Shelf Labels

Mrs Robinson is looking forward to seeing everyone at The Dixie Grammar School in the Summer Term!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: design, development, news

Sorry that this site has not been updated for some time. Mrs Robinson, the Librarian, is off work due to a serious illness at the moment. As soon as she is back, she will add some new posts and material to the site.

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: news

Would you like to win some great prizes?

Mrs Robinson has managed to get some goodies with a Joshua Files theme, including a copy of the first book, “Invisible City”, signed by the author M G Harris!

What do you have to do?

Design a bookmark to advertise our Library! Use your computer to make a great bookmark – the winning design will be printed and used to encourage people to use the Library. Come in to the Library and ask Mrs Robinson for more details!

For more information about the Joshua Files, with great downloads and videos, have a look at these sites:

The Joshua Files by M. G. Harris

The Official MG Harris Fan site

The MG Harris Blog

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: competitions

Here are the photographs from our fantastic Write Path session, which I wrote about previously.

Here are the links to the stories. Our students worked in pairs to write a paragraph, collaborating on stories with schools from around the world. Please read them and tell us what you think! The names in the links belong to the authors who started each story.

Story started by Alex Milway

Story started by Catherine Fisher

Story started by Joanne Harris

Story started by Jo Craig

Story started by Penny Dolan

Story started by Pete Johnson

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: English, special events, Write Path, writing

We had an amazing hour in the Library this morning and Mrs Robinson is exhilarated and proud as punch after taking part in Write Path for the first time! All we can say is “Can we do it again next year, please?”.

Write Path is an annual event aiming to encourage connections with students around the world through the means of a collaborative story writing activity. This year, Write Path is taking place over two weeks with over 60 schools from a wide range of countries taking part.

 The organiser has been able to enlist the support of some fantastic authors and poets.  They will each write a story or poem “starter”. Each day, six of these are available and the students then write the next paragraph (up to 250 words) so that the story/poem progresses during the day. These are then uploaded to a collaborative website so that everyone can see. The last school each day finishes the story/poem. Each school gets one slot during the two weeks.

 The English Department here were so helpful, choosing the 12 students from Year 7, organising a teacher to help out, getting hold of some Sixth Formers who also encouraged and supported the younger students and much more. Thanks so much!

 The students themselves were brilliant – taking to the whole idea with cries of “Awesome”, particularly when told that the finished stories would be published in book form. They were up and running very quickly, and worked fantastically well. We were amazed at their flexibility when some of the paragraphs from the school before us popped up half way through our session – they simply adjusted what they had written. Our Sixth Form students helped some of the Year 7s with typing and kept them focussed on the task – huge thanks to them too!

A fantastic hour!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: English, international, literacy, special events, students, Write Path, writing

“Reading Champions” is the name of our Reading Group. We meet every Friday in the Library from 1.30 until 2.00 – all keen readers are welcome.

At our meeting today, we are going to discuss what kinds of activities you would like to do this year – it’s up to you!

Here are some suggestions:

• Just chilling and reading
• Sharing our favourite books
• Writing blogs or wikis about good books
• Looking at graphic novels
• Reading magazines
• Shadowing a book award
• Talking about genres

You decide!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: Reading Champions, Reading Group

Mrs Robinson, the Librarian, recently wrote an article for SecEd magazine about the development of our Library. You can read it online here:

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: development, school libraries