Library Online

Welcome to Year 6 students! This post has been made to help you with your project.

Image by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr

Please choose one endangered animal and find answers to these questions. You will then have to present your findings in a PowerPoint.

1. What does endangered mean?
2. How many of your animal are alive in the wild or in captivity?
3. What is your animal’s main habitat?
4. What are the main predators of your animal?
5. What is the lifespan of your animal?
6. Can you find out the reasons why your animal is endangered?
7. Can you find out what is being done to preserve it? Which are the main organisations working on this?

Here are a range of websites that Mrs Robinson has found for you. If you click on the link, it will open in a new window.

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: endangered animals, links, research, Science, students, weblinks, Year 6

Glad to see you have found our Library website! Mrs Robinson has been looking for the best websites for your research into Dutch Elm Disease.

If you click on the title below, you will be taken to our Delicious site where you will find more links.

Image is Beetle Galleries by megankhines on Flickr.

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: research, research guides, sixth form, students

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

Need help finding sources for your assignments? Do you need ideas to improve your searching? Well, why not have a look at the presentation below!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: learning, online databases, research, sixth form, students, teaching

Electricity in the UK for the next generation

Dear Year 10 student,

I have put together some websites to help you with this assessment. If you click on the links below, you will go through to the Library Online page on Delicious. This is where I have gathered a whole lot of websites for you to see. I hope you find them useful.

• How power stations work
• Statistics on electricity production
• Fossil fuels
• Renewable energy sources
  • biomass
  • hydroelectric power
  • solar power
  • tidal and wave power
  • wind power
• Nuclear energy

Good luck with your work!

Mrs Robinson,
Librarian

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: electricity, Physics, research, Science, students, weblinks, Year 10

Mrs Robinson has put some web sites together for you on Acid Rain:

http://delicious.com/DixieLibrary/acid_rain

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: acid rain, research, Science, students

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

(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
• Consult with school community – on-going
• Survey students – done – Year 7-13 Survey see results and comments/feedback, Year 6 Survey see results, comments and feedback
  
• Create plan for library as a result of these consultations - on-going. Plan mainly finalised, but there will be some “tweaks” over the coming weeks
  
• Library shelving and furnishing suppliers chosen – done
  

(8) Use of ICT and developing technologies:

• Create the Library Online website – done
• Continue to develop the site to be a support for teaching and learning in the school – on-going
• Development of wiki for Reading Champions Group - started, but awaiting feedback from students
  

(9) Enjoy my new job:

Definitely! And this is continuing…

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: assessment, development, Library Helpers, Library Online, management, monitoring, Reading Champions, Reading Group, staff, students, surveys

In our Surveys, many students said that they were interested in a regular newsletter. So here it is! You can download it from here, or get a copy from your Form Tutor or the Library.

Download our January 2009 Library Newsletter for Students

Please let me know what you would like to see in the next newsletter. You could also think of a good name for it and post it on this site as a comment!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: downloads, newsletters, Student News, students

Please read the results of our Student Survey on these pages:

Year 6 Survey Results, Comments and our Feedback

Year 7-13 Survey Results

Year 7-13 Survey Comments and our Feedback

Please let me know what you think by leaving comments on these pages!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: development, feedback, students, surveys

The stock-take was completed last week and an Initial Assessment Report on the Library was sent to the Headmaster and my Line Manager, Mr Haddon. This will enable us to have a baseline against which to measure the future development of the Library.

This week, I am continuing with the following things:

• Assessing and weeding all stock
• Cleaning, repairing and re-cataloguing remaining stock
• Designing and printing new guiding and signage
• Beginning to plan displays – particularly with Open Morning in mind
• Getting to know staff and pupils
• Developing the Library Online Website

The Library is now open at lunchtimes as well as after school for all pupils – see previous post. A small collection of magazines has been started. I am also planning how to involve the pupils as Library Helpers – note not Librarians!

Now, I also have to think about how to promote the services of the Library and especially this website – more on that soon!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: cataloguing, development, displays, guiding, Library Helpers, Open Morning, signage, staff, stock-taking, students, weeding