The recently formed WGHS LGBT+ Society has been meeting in the library each Friday lunchtime. The formation of the society has handily coincided with LGBT+ History month, so the students have been working on a display which we have put up in the library to signpost our LGBT+ fiction collection. Come and have a browse!
More information on LGBT+ History month is available here: http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/ or on twitter @LGBTHM.
On February the 1st, myself and a group of Sixth Form students were fortunate enough to attend the ‘Brave Women in Fiction’ event at nearby Wolverhampton Grammar School. This was a fantastic opportunity to listen to four incredible YA authors talking about their work, inspirations and the writing process. The authors were Melinda Salisbury (‘The Sin Eater’s Daughter’), Sara Barnard (‘Beautiful Broken Things’), Catherine Doyle (‘Inferno’) and Katherine Webber (‘Wing Jones’). It was great to hear them talk with real warmth about the characters they have created and what inspires them as people and as writers. We got a chance to ask a few questions at the end, and there was a meet and greet as well! Thanks to Zoe Rowley and Duncan McAllister at WGS for inviting us, it was fab!
A few of us with Catherine Doyle, the author of the ‘Vendetta’ trilogy
Katherine Webber, the (super enthusiastic and very sweet!) author of ‘Wing Jones’
Sara Barnard, author of ‘Beautiful Broken Things’ and ‘A Quiet Kind of Thunder’
All of their books (some now signed!) are available in the school library – come and grab a copy or make a reservation!
Miss Lees
So we’ve finally reached the end of January and should be at the stage where we’re now remembering to write ‘2017’ instead of ‘2016’ on everything! Some exciting events are going on today which I will blog about in more detail soon.
First of all the library is helping to run a webinar for A level History students in conjunction with Channel Talent and UCL about the concept of the American Dream:
“We are all familiar with the term ‘American Dream’, though we may have noticed that it’s used to mean sometimes quite different things. Is it about material success –a rags to riches story of what can be done ‘only in America’? Or is it about ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’– values that are sometimes imagined to be uniquely or particularly invested in the US system of government?
This lecture examines the origins of the term ‘American Dream’ and asks why it has had such purchase in American society. Dr Adam Smith from UCL will show that the term ‘American Dream’ was only invented in the 1930s, but will begin much earlier – back with the first Puritan settlers – because although the term was new when it was coined during the Great Depression it drew on a long history of thinking about what made America ‘special’.
This evening a group of us are visiting Wolverhampton Grammar School to attend their ‘Brave Women in Fiction’ author event featuring Sara Barnard, Katherine Webber, Melinda Salisbury and Catherine Doyle. The library is also hosting the first meeting of the LGBT+ Society on Friday lunchtime and we have Yr 7 book club and Excelsior meetings coming up!
We have recently donated 10 boxes of old library stock to The Rural Enterprise Academy at Rodbaston Hall in Staffordshire. This new Free School is setting up a library from scratch with no funding so I was happy to be able to help, and it meant that we could have a good clear out of unwanted books!
Miss Lees