I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

SAVE THE DATE: The LRC will be hosting it's first ever Christmas Fair next week.

Winter in Wonderland will take place on Tuesday 20th December 2016 from 17.30-19.00 and all are welcome to attend - this event is open to all students, staff, families and friends from Christmases past, present and future. The more the merrier!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Somewhere Beyond the Sea and My House in Budapest

 

This year, we got involved in the Bookmark Exchange Project  2016 as part of International School Library Month. With this year’s theme being ‘Decode your World’ we made transparent bookmarks (see image below) filled with binary computer code and handwritten messages and corner bookmarks with small detailed patterns and pictographs.

It was an exciting experience sending off our bookmarks around the world and receiving bookmarks made by students from two schools in Budapest (Hungary) and one school from Trinidad. 

Bookmarks from St. Augustine Secondary School, Trindad

Bookmarks from Berzenyi Dániel Gimnázium, Hungary

Bookmarks from Kerületi Szinyei Merse Pál Gimnázium, Hungary

Student Librarian:  Jessica Reddington

Been Around the World

International School Library Month is celebrated annually around the world during October as part of the IASL’s (International Association of School Librarianship) advocacy campaigns.

The LRC at South Sefton College celebrated this year by recruiting new student librarians, going global with the 2016 Bookmark Exchange Project and running a ‘Staff Reads’ promotion around college to let students know what books staff recommend.

Dream a Little Dream of Me

We had a week of magical celebrations for the one true hero of children's books—Roald Dahl. To celebrate his birthday on 13th September, we had a week packed with epic things; there was a daily fun filled scavenger hunt searching for elusive ‘Golden Tickets’, with the gloriumptious prizes of fizz-popping and whizz-banging sweets, sweets… and more sweets!

The LRC showed it's Roald Dahl colours with a dahlicious display of some of Dahl's best works, including the novels such as ‘The BFG’ (my  personal favourite) ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘Matilda’ (Leane's favourite).

The final touch was the Craft Club making Dream Jars for the display, sharing student’s dreams and giving off that true childhood enchantment we all experienced through reading Roald Dahl.

Student Librarian: Jessica MacCulloch

Teenage Kicks

I thought it might be useful to tell you about the After College Programme in the LRC. All events are FREE and open to all students and staff.

Join us on Mondays for Book Club, Tuesdays for Chess Club and Thursdays for Craft Club; or aspiring writers  can get involved with creating content for our LRC newsletter, |shelf life. Check out our new series of posters below for more information.

LRC Manager: Leane Kinsella

“Book Club has a cosy and warm atmosphere and the Craft Club is an imaginative and fun way to create different makes each week.”     Student Librarian: Jess MacCulloch

 

The Winner Takes It All

It was an enjoyable afternoon for the LRC team when we presented the certificates for the Student Librarian Awards.  It was a gathering between friends not team mates, the goodbyes were hard but we know each of them are going on to better things. It was a great way to say farewell and celebrate the year we’d had together. 

Student Librarian: Beckie Lees

When You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello...

The summer term is always quieter in the LRC with students and staff focused on exam preparations but we managed to have a super time at our Marvellous Superheroes event. We celebrated the end of exams with a quiz for fans of Marvel and DC comics– see our 'I'm Holding Out For A Hero' post for more information about the event from our students.

It is also a time of change for the LRC team as we say a fond farewell to students moving on to university or the world of  work and welcoming new student recruits to the team but we finished the year with a bang with our LRC Team student librarian awards evening – excellent achievements from all our students. Look out for our recap coming soon.

LRC Manager: Leane Kinsella

I'm Holding Out For A Hero

As Student Librarians, we help to organise and plan different events in the LRC.

For the summer term we chose to plan our Marvel vs. DC themed comic event called ‘Marvellous Superheroes’.

Students discovered their own superhero name and then joined either the Marvel or DC team to get involved with a scavenger hunt and comic quiz.

Student Librarians:  Jack Lyon & Liam Gowing

 “I thought it was brilliant that we had our own super hero name and super powers—my power was phasing, so cool and even better, our Marvel Team won the quiz and scavenger hunt.”            Student: Jessica Reddington

 

Be Our Guest

Today we have a guest post about the CILIP Carnegie Medal from one of our Student Librarians, Beckie Lees;

"The Carnegie Award was established in 1936 in memory of the philanthropist Robert Carnegie, he was a self made industrialist and after his great experience of using libraries as a child made him resolve to the solution if he ever came into money he'd use it to establish free libraries. Carnegie set up 2800 libraries across the English speaking world and by the time he died over half the libraries in Britain were Carnegie libraries.

Every year a new Carnegie shortlist is announced to the writer of the outstanding book for children. This year in the LRC book Club, 'South Sefton Reads', we decided to each have a cheeky read of the books shortlisted. I chose to read 'The Lie Tree' by Frances Hardinge; it's such an amazing story, I wouldn't know how to describe it. The story is so unbelievable (in a good way) and full of adventure. I'd definitely be happy if it won.

There are quite a few brilliant books up for this years award, with authors such as Patrick Ness, Marcus Sedgwick and Jenny Valentine. All the books look really appealing! The Carnegie award always picks several books that can be tailored to all different people as they are a number of genres. All the shortlisted books are available in the LRC, if you're interested come and take a look."

If You Like It Then You Should Have Put A Ring On It

On Thursday 31st March, the LRC closed it’s doors and allowed ‘no admittance except on party business’ when we explored the fantastical world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with our Middle Earth Entmoot.

Beginning with a scavenger hunt around the college for the Fellowship’s lost Lorien leaves, the armies then battled in the war of the donut rings to win the middle earth quiz. The conquering army was the Elves - congratulations to our winners, Daniel Hill and Lauren Coady.

LRC Manager: Leane Kinsella

Checkmate

On Tuesday 29th March 2016, the LRC hosted the college's Spring Chess Tournament.
Congratulations to our Spring Chess Tournament prize winners - Liam Gowing and Callum Murphy.

What I Go To School For

During the Experiences programme on a Wednesday, I was part of  the Performance Production group that brought ‘Teechers’ by John Godber to the stage.


Learning lines for the play was the easy part believe it or not, remembering the cues was the nightmare of all nightmares. Practicing together as a cast was the best fun I have had in a while. Being able to express yourself through a character is the best experience.


‘Teechers’ was a hilarious and entertaining journey and the audience totally agreed. We received laughter when jokes were told or even when bad dancing was displayed by the actors and the SSC staff that got involved! The production was a success, through all the panic, worry and stress came a funny, joyful play enjoyed by the audience.

Student: Leah Vasconcelos

My Heart Skips, Skips A Beat

On Saturday 6^th February 2016, I went to The Bluecoat to take part in the ‘Poetry by Heart’ County Championship; a competition where I had to perform two poems in front of judges, such as poets Andrew McMillan and Mark Pajak, with a number of other contestants. I recited ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ by Oscar Wilde and ‘Wedding’ by Alice Oswald. It was an amazing experience that was both fun and challenging and I’d definitely do it again given the chance.

Student: Lily-Rose Staples

I Put A Spell On You

With a Spellathon Trivia Challenge, a Search for the Golden Snitches, a Spellbook Scavenger Hunt and some Wizarding Duels, the Harry Potter Book Night was filled with magic, mystery and comedy thanks to quizmaster Jack’s hilarious spell pronunciations.

The Wizarding Duels were by far my favourite. Nothing brings out the magic in the room like students from different houses screaming spells at other victims. Sophie from Ravenclaw astounded the team at her in-depth knowledge of just about everything. Basically a great night and a huge congratulations to Ravenclaw (my team) on their fantabbytastic victory.

Student: Jessica MacCulloch

Let Me Take a Shelfie

The LRC has launched its first ever magazine; issue number one of |shelf life is all about getting to know the LRC. I hope you like our first edition!
 
|shelf life was conceived by students for students. The original concept was sparked from a conversation with the volunteer Student Librarians in our team meeting one week about how we can keep staff and students informed about the LRC.
 
The aim of the newsletter is to provide a termly round up of all the news and events from the LRC and about any literature events happening locally and nationally.
 
It’s all about you
 
This is your student magazine - so please send in any ideas or suggestions for features or content that you would like to see. If you enjoy reading, writing and voicing your opinion then |shelf life needs you!

What are we looking for?
 
We are looking for someone who is pro-active, enthusiastic and is willing to put their voice forward to help others. If you enjoy writing, whether you are creating your own work (e.g. stories or poems) or reviewing books, music or films, then get in touch and get involved.

 

For any more information about how to get involved, or if you wish to send us your reviews then please feel free to come and speak to us at the LRC Helpdesk or alternatively, you can contact us at: shelf.life@sssfc.ac.uk

Make A Move

The Learning Resource Centre has an After College Programme with a variety of clubs for students and staff to attend. Chess Club is on Tuesday after college in the LRC where you can come down and learn how to play chess. We welcome all levels of players; you can challenge your friends, improve your skills or just have fun!

In 2015, we launched our first Chess Tournament. This was an all-play-all tournament and after some tricky matches, we had an outright champion. Congratulations to the chess tournament winner, Callum Murphy! As the winner, Callum took away the tournament trophy and a box of chocolates.