National Poetry Day - 4th October 2018

National Poetry Day will take place on Thursday, 4 October 2018 and encourages everyone to discover and share poems. The theme this year is 'Change'.

There are some excellent free resources available on the National Poetry Day website and, closer to home, the Scottish Poetry Day website. SPL have produced some fantastic downloadable posters and learning notes on the six poems they have chosen this year - "My Pitch" by Jackie Kay seems particularly apt for Black History Month, and "Dr Wha" by James Robertson might prove popular with all the hype about a certain sci-fi series starting again on 7th October... 

National Strategy for School Libraries - Great School Libraries Campaign

Hard copies of the National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland 2018-2023 Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools should be arriving in schools this week - copies were also distributed by the Scottish Library Information Council (SLIC) at the Scottish Learning Festival last week. The aim of the Strategy is to "highlight to decision makers the intrinsic value of a good school library service and the impact this can have on children and young people’s wider school experience". You can read more about the Strategy on the SLIC website, as well as other matters pertaining to school libraries, such as the Improvement Fund and How Good is Our School Library.

The Great School Libraries campaign was also launched on Thursday. Spearheaded by CILIP, SLG and SLA, this campaign has three aims: to secure school library funding; to produce a national framework for school libraries in England; and recognition of school libraries within the Ofsted framework. Read more about this campaign here.

First Minister's Reading Challenge

The First Minister's Reading Challenge has been launched and for the first time includes secondary schools as well as primary schools and libraries.

Sign up for resources and more details at www.readingchallenge.scot

National Scottish School Library Strategy Launched

The Scottish Government and Cosla have created a national strategy for school libraries.

You can download a copy of 'Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools' here 

or head over to the Scottish Govenment website to find out more about the project.