03 September 2007

 

New name, new look: Library News moves

Since the school's name changed on 1 September to Our Lady's Abingdon I have taken the opportunity to change the look and name of the Library's weblog.

You can still see the archive of past news here, but you will find the latest news at Our Lady's Abingdon Library News http://olablib.blogspot.com.

# posted by BH @ 8:40 pm

24 July 2007

 

Summer Reading Challenge

Can you read six books over the summer? Yes, of course you can! I want to encourage you to read over the summer. Read anything, but don’t stop! You could even challenge your mum or dad to do the same, or read the same books as you do.

If you are about to join Our Lady's in September then one way is to go along to your local public library and take part in The Big Wild Read during the school summer holidays. You will be given a bright folder to record your summer reading, sets of stickers to decorate your folder (including scratch and sniff stickers such as flowers, strawberries plus smelly compost!), as well as fridge magnets, moving-image bookmarks and packs of wild flower seeds to collect as you read your books.

When you complete the The Big Wild Read by reading six or more books will receive a medal and/or certificate. There’s a super website http://www.bigwildread.co.uk/. All you need to do now is get reading!

It’s free to join your public library. You’ll need an adult to sign the membership form, and then you can borrow up to 20 books! More info at Kids & Teens @ Libraries, http://kidlib.oxfordshire.gov.uk

If you’re going to be away and can’t visit your local library this summer, then don’t miss out - make sure you do the OLCSS Summer Reading Challenge, which is very similar. If you're already mad about books and reading then why not start a Reading Diary, and bring it in to show me in September.

# posted by BH @ 9:02 pm

09 July 2007

 

Wellington College are KLQ World Champions

Wellington College, Belfast, Northern Ireland are winners of the 2007 Kids’ Lit Quiz World Final. It was an exciting and close match. Runners up were the New Zealand team from St Cuthbert's College, Auckland. A play-off for third place was won by Aylesbury High School with The International School of Beijing, China coming fourth.

Also answering many questions which showed their great reading knowledge were teams from Grove School, Cape Town, South Africa, George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Cardiff High School, Wales.

Congratulations to Wellington College, and to all the teams for reaching the international finals. When it comes to reading everyone is a winner!


# posted by BH @ 11:31 pm

29 June 2007

 

Kids’ Lit Quiz World Final

The 2007 Kids’ Lit Quiz World Final will be held in Oxford, on the 9 July. Seven international teams from China (The International School of Beijing), England (Aylesbury High School), New Zealand (St Cuthbert's College), Northern Ireland (Wellington College), Scotland (George Heriot's School) and South Africa (Grove School Cape Town) will be battling it out to win the trophy and some fantastic prizes.

Teams of four children aged 12-13 will be answering questions on children’s literature and reading put to them by the dynamic quizmaster, New Zealander, Professor Wayne Mills, who invented the KLQ. To reach this stage each team will have won a regional heat and their national final.

The World Final of the KLQ will be held at the Unipart Conference Centre Oxford. There will be a capacity audience of over 300, made up of school children from local schools, 23 authors, including local writers Philip Pullman and Rachael Wing. There will also be editors, publishers, teachers, librarians, friends and family, as well as the Leader of the County Council, two mayors, and officers from the DfES.

It is the first time that a World Final has taken place outside New Zealand, and the event has aroused much interest in the world of children’s literature. The World Final will be followed by a Gala Celebration Dinner at the same venue, and is one day out of a week of organised activities for these very talented young readers, which is their prize for reaching the KLQ World Final.

Funded entirely by sponsorships, the equivalent of £35,000, made up of cash donations and sponsorships in kind, has been raised since the end of December by the three volunteer organisers, of which I am one.


# posted by BH @ 10:42 pm

13 June 2007

 

A Swift Pure Cry wins Abingdon Carnegie Forum vote

One hundred students, who had been shadowing the Carnegie Medal, enjoyed a day sharing their views of the Carnegie Medal shortlisted books, meeting friends from junior school, and making new ones. The Abingdon Carnegie Forum is an annual event organised by the Librarians of the six secondary schools in Abingdon.

The groups of shadowers discussed the criteria the judges will be using - plot, characters and style. There was no shortage of opinions: over 300 reviews had already been posted by the students from the schools. Guest judges circulated, listening to the groups, then retired for the hard task of selecting the best reviews for each book.

After lunch the discussion groups, which were lead by their librarians and English teachers, gave a short presentations about why their book should win the Carnegie Medal, and voting slips were completed. Whilst the results were being counted we enjoyed some cake. Prizes of book tokens and books went to the review winners, the 'Best Group Presentation' , and 'Best Contributor' in each group.

The Abingdon Carnegie Forum voted for A Swift Pure Cry as our winner, with My Swordhand is Singing close behind. Find out on 22 June if the real judges agree.

Our thanks to John Mason School who hosted this year's forum.

# posted by BH @ 10:55 pm

11 June 2007

 

Michael Rosen is the new Children's Laureate

Michael Rosen has been selected as the Children's Laureate, taking over from Jacqueline Wilson. He will hold the position of Children's Laureate for two years and wins a £10,000 bursary. One of the author, poet and broadcaster's best known books is We're Going On A Bear Hunt.

On his appointment he said, "I hope that I'll be able to boost all children's reading for pleasure but also to give a special lift to the wonderful diverse world of poetry for children. I see my job as Children’s Laureate being an ambassador for fun with books."

More information: http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/ and http://www.booktrusted.co.uk/childrenslaureate/

# posted by BH @ 10:10 pm

03 June 2007

 

Red House Children's Book Award Winners for 2007

The Red House Children's Book Award is awarded annually in three categories, and is judged entirely by children from shortlist to final overall Winner. Throughout the voting process OLCSS students were encouraged to vote for new books they had been reading. Once the Top 10 was announced, some went on to read all of the Top 3 books in the Older Readers category, and many Year 7s and Year 8s had a session in the Library to enjoy and rank the four books in the Younger Children's category.

The 2007 Award Ceremony took place at the Guardian Hay Festival. Two of our students were invited as representatives of the Oxford Testing Group and were seated at Sophie McKenzie's table. Look out for their report in the next issue of our school newsletter, Newsdesk.

The Overall Winner was:
You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton
in the Category for Younger Readers.

The other Category Winners were:
Girl Missing by Sophie McKenzie
in the Category for Older Readers
and
Who's in the Loo? by Jeanne Willis & Adrian Reynolds
in the Category for Younger Children.

# posted by BH @ 9:01 pm

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