Just a little reminder about the information that you find on the Internet :)

Always check your sources!

Find more Library cartoons at http://www.unshelved.com/Default.aspx

Year 9 Independent Learning Days

This week some Year 9 pupils have been following their own interests and researching topics to present to an audience of staff and Year 6 pupils. They have had a period of three days to plan, research and present their findings.

They have had to fit in their research around some of their lessons and manage their own time and planning. The presentations were delivered today, Wednesday 20th using Powerpoint slides, music, drama, handouts and quizes.

One presentation was on Harry Potter and the other covered Fashion. Both groups did remarkably well and engaged their audience and entertained us with their presentation styles and materials. Both talks were interactive and made the audience think about the topic e.g. "Is size zero a good thing" or about the facts on the subject e.g Harry Potter quiz.

The students put in a great deal of effort into their projects and enjoyed the opportunity to choose the area of research for themselves. They also realised how challenging it was to organise your own time and motivate yourself to complete research when a teacher isn't constantly organising your time for you.

The pupils found the task to be valuable and good skills training for the start of their GCSE courses in September.

Open Morning

Today is MSJ Open Morning - so everyone is very busy doing lots of activities including sport, music, drama and science experiments. In the Library we are still in exam preparation mode so we have Sixth Formers and Year 11 pupils who want to get their heads down to do some study. But there are some other pupils in just relaxing and reading books and magazines or working on the computer.

The Library is looking tidy and the Assistant Librarian put up a new display this week on Science as we wanted to publicise some of our new popular science books and our magazines. We subscribe to Flipside, Focus, Cosmos and New Scientist; so hopefully there is something to suit all interests!

The Library is on the main tour route of the school so most of the visitors do come and see us which gives me an opportunity to tell them of all the different services that we offer within school including our Information Literacy programme across the curriculum.

Drama Days: Publicity Workshop

The first workshop on Publicity took place yesterday with a group of year 8 & 9 pupils who have been taking part in the Drama days. Their task was to create some materials that could be usd to promote the event. They had to choose the format of their material (creating a blog, making a powerpoint presentation, a magazine report or flyer). In teams of three they had to decide which photographs to choose and the copy that would go with them. At the end of the session the girls shared their work and commented on the work produced by the others.

The finished resources will be on display during the Malvern St James Open Morning this Saturday (June 16th).

Comments from the pupils show that they have thoroughly enjoyed participating in the the different sessions and have appreciated exploring their dramatic creativity.

Have a look at Olivia's blog to find out what's been going on. http://siblol.blogspot.com/

Year 7 Independent Learning Day

On Wednesday 13th Year 7 were taken off timetable and give the opportunity to research a topic that interested them. The day was lead by Dr Jones (Librarian) and Miss Owen (Head of Years 7 - 9). Pupils had to be responsible for their own learning for the day and answer self-devised research questions. Guidance was provided by staff on the processes and skills involved in being an Independent Learner. The pupils had sessions on planning their time and research, what resources to use, constructing a bibliography, evaluating sources and how to give a good presentation.

The pupils presented their findings in the afternoon to the whole year group and an invited audience of Year 6 pupils from the Junior department.

The presentations were lively and included topics such as the Bermuda Triangle, different European Countries, Historical figures and learning how to surf.

Pupils then had evaluation sheets to fill out on the presentations they had seen and also a feedback form on their thoughts of the day.

Year 7 are to be congratulated for all the hard work they put into the day - making it an enjoyable and lively experience.

Seaside Magazine

Year 6 are investigating seasides around Britain. After a talk about Broadstairs on the Kent coast, they produced a Broadstairs magazine full of information about this town. Pages include the Dicken's festival, folk week and the Red Arrows' display at the water gala. Well done year six. If you want to see their magazine ask Mrs Buchanan, their teacher in the Junior school.

It all starts tomorrow

The Drama days kick off tomorrow for years 8 & 9 with 3 different streams of activities taking place throughout the day.

The Playbox theatre company are coming in over the three days to take workshops and stage a performance at 3.30pm every day.

The other groups will be having sessions on Musical theatre and Costume Design.

A session on Publicity will also give pupils the opportunity to create their own pieces of advertising literature on paper and on the web.

Drama Days

The Drama days take place this week on Wednesday 13th, Thursday 14th and Friday 15th June.

Pupils will be involved in music, acting, dance and drama workshops run by professionals. It promises to be an interesting and exciting few days.

The event has been organised by the Creative Arts co-ordinator Mrs Fisher.

Welcome to MSJ Library

Welcome to the MSJ Library blog.

The school is having some Drama Days next week and I hope to be able to post some pictures and text about what's been going on.

If you are interested in finding out about the school then follow this link:

www.malvernstjames.co.uk