For the first time, students at The Dixie Grammar School are joining in the CILIP Carnegie Medal Shadowing Scheme. We have had our first meeting and 14 students from Years 8 and 9 have signed up!
There are 8 books on the shortlist:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Graveyard Book by Nail Gaiman
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant
Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve
Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
The group will be meeting in the Library on Friday lunchtimes every week – we hope to have a lot of fun and great discussions as we read the books!
If you are a Shadower, then click here to access the official website and post a review.
Click on “Post a Review”
Enter “Dixie” in the search box and you will then be able to select “The Dixie Grammar School”.
Write your review and click on “Send”.
Mrs Robinson will then check your review and enable it to be uploaded to our site.
To read any reviews from our group – have a look at our page on the site.
We are now getting nearer to the development of the library in the Summer Holidays! The whole thing will start at May Half Term, when the partition between the Library and Room 8 will be removed and also the current shelving and some furniture. All of the resources and equipment will be boxed up and the Librarian re-located to Room 9 until the new Library is ready! The main work will begin at the very start of the Summer Holidays.
There has been a lot done in two terms and it is again time to look at how far we have progressed:
(1) Establish a baseline for future assessment – complete
(2) Learn how to use the Eclipse 2 Library Management
Continuing to develop skills. Small number of Student Library Helpers have been recruited and I am training them on the system.
(3) Start to get-to-know the school community and systems
Attend staff meetings, special events and assemblies – on-going
Talk to staff and students both formally and informally – on-going
Begin to recruit and train Student Library helpers - see above. Small number recruited – learning essential systems in readiness for Autumn Term opening.
Deliver a presentation to the whole school in assembly – done
(4) Library management and administration:
Library Procedures Manual setting out all library administrative systems – on-going
Library Handbook gathering evidence of the Library and Librarian’s impact on teaching and learning in the school – on-going
Monitoring reports for the Senior Management and Governors – on-going
(5) Library resources:
Weed, re-catalogue, clean, mend and label Fiction stock – done
Weed, re-catalogue, clean, mend and label Non-Fiction stock – almost finished!
Begin to purchase new stock items after consultation with staff and students – will continue towards end of Summer Term and during Summer Holidays
Put up new signage and guiding – done. Note – this will be removed when Library dismantled at May Half Term. New signage will be designed for Library when ready.
(6) Library use and impact on curriculum:
Re-organise physical layout of tables etc – done
Open at lunchtimes and after school – every day
Publicise Reading Champions group and begin meetings – done. New Reading Champions Wiki being developed in conjunction with students to allow them to discuss their reading with each other.
Library Induction for Year 6 students – took place on the afternoon of International Day – very successful according to student feedback
Helping students and staff to choose suitable reading material – developing
Supporting students and staff with range of research queries – developing
(7) Library development:
Attend relevant planning meetings – on-going
Liaise with school staff to support co-ordination of the project – on-going
Continuing to develop a wish-list for the development – on-going
Plan a series of visits to other suitable school libraries – on-going
Open discussions with suitable library furnishing companies – done
As we work on improving the condition of the present stock, I have now called an Amnesty to try to get back some of the missing items and long-term overdues. This is so that the catalogue will be accurate – then we can begin to build up more resources. We live in hope!
I am now thinking about how we can engage students and staff in the development of the new Library. A range of survey ideas are being looked at together with a presentation to the whole school in Assembly.
Plans are also afoot for a Reading Champions group – next week, during National Children’s Book Week, I will send out a poster to all tutor groups asking keen readers to come to the Library for a meeting.
I am continuing to work on re-cataloguing the stock, as before – this will probably take me some months. So I will not repeat the same list of activities every week, but post when I have finished!
Lots of ideas are buzzing around my head as I sort out the existing stock and these will become apparent over the next few weeks (the names of these may change):
Reading Group – I would like to have a group which could meet regularly to discuss their favourite reads. Hopefully, they could also act as “Reading Champions” to the rest of the school and feed back suggestions for the stock.
Library Supporters Group – made up of students to contribute ideas into the full Library Development Group.
Publicising this website and also other activities going on related to the Library to the students – perhaps through an assembly.
In addition to the stock work and the above musings, I am continuing with the following things:
Designing and printing new guiding and signage.
Working on displays – particularly with Open Morning in mind.
We now have access to Listening Books. This is an online audio streaming and download service providing children's fiction and non-fiction in an audio format.
Please see Mrs Robinson for more information.
Research Guides
Mrs Robinson is making a range of Research Guides using the LibGuides platform. Please ask her if you want more information. This widget lists all of our published guides.
If you cannot see the widget, you can access the full list here:
Senior School
We are hoping that our Reading Champions group will resume soon.
If you would like to join the group, please see Mrs Robinson.
Library Catalogue
Senior School Library Catalogue powered by LibraryThing
Request a Book
* Are you a member of The Dixie Grammar School community?
* Have you got a favourite book that you would like our Libraries to stock?
Then, please click on the Junior School or Senior School link below Senior School Library Junior School Library
Mrs Robinson will then add the book to her list for consideration.
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