This site should give you an idea of what goes on in our dynamic, diverse and distinct library.
If you have any suggestions for inclusion, would like to suggest a link , or you wish to ask any questions: please email Mrs Toonen on gw09toonenshelagh@glow.sch.uk.
Following a successful application to The British Council, we are looking forward to creating connections in an exciting new partnership focused on sharing stories and promoting reading for pleasure. 50 schools across the UK have been paired with 50 Ukrainian schools for a year-long reading project. Our Ukrainian partner school is Hadiach Lyceum №1 named after Olena Pchilka, in the Poltava region.
Class 2.2 will begin the project in September with Librarian Mrs Toonen and English teacher Miss Macdonald.
Our staff sent postcards to the Reading Leaders with details of their holidays and their choice of books.
Mad for Manga? Check out our new collections in the Library
Golden news to share...
We were THRILLED to learn that we are now a Scottish Book Trust Gold Award Reading School!
Congratulations to our pupils, staff, parents, partners and all in our Team EA school community for this wonderful Gold accreditation.
Watching Elgin Academy's journey through the Reading Schools programme has been nothing short of a pleasure and a joy. The work you are doing is truly phenomenal; you have created an environment that not only celebrates the fun (and importance!) of reading for pleasure, but you have become a proud champion of reading across your whole community and are widely recognised as the real driver of readership in your local area.
Having looked through your amazing trove of evidence in great detail, I am absolutely delighted to let you know that you have achieved your Reading School: Gold accreditation! Congratulations! (#smashed-it!)
What you have achieved is seriously staggering. It's clear you have built an incredible reading culture at Elgin Academy; as well as all the fantastic things happening in school, you have found great success in engaging families, working closely (and meaningfully) with community partners and supporting your neighbouring schools. Your work promoting and supporting EAL families, spotlighting and celebrating neurodiversity and making reading visible (and accessible) throughout the school is awe inspiring - you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves!
Run by Scottish Book Trust, Reading Schools is an accreditation programme that recognises schools for their commitment to building a culture of reading for their learners and communities.
Since achieving the silver award in early 2023, the school and pupils have worked extremely hard to earn that gold status, participating in a variety of events and activities designed to promote the joys of reading.
Elgin Academy’s librarian, Shelagh Toonen, and her school improvement group supported by the pupils, have been instrumental in this achievement. They’ve created an environment that not only celebrates the fun and importance of reading but have become proud champions of reading across the whole community.
The group has implemented partnerships and family projects such as a reading projects with primary schools and Anderson’s care home, worked with local businesses and held a fundraiser for a book basket to give away to parents in a free raffle.
Moray Council Newsroom 25 January 2024.
One S4 Reading Leader, Evie Collins, said: “Working towards our Gold Award gave us the opportunity to build connections with our community in and outside of school. It helped us to share our love of reading and to spread the importance and fun of reading with others in lots of different ways.”
Bethan Dodd, another S4 reading leader, added: “Achieving Gold has taught us that, even though we have now achieved gold accreditation, we still have lots of creative opportunities to share reading in our community.”
Chair of Moray Council’s Education, Communities and Leisure Services Committee, Cllr Kathleen Robertson, said: “A massive congratulations to everyone at Elgin Academy. What an amazing achievement to become the first school in Moray to receive the Reading Schools’ Gold award and it’s so encouraging to see the dedication the staff and pupils have had in sharing reading within the community.”
We are delighted that Elgin Academy Team EA is in this film. Hear about the impact of the school library on learners and our pupils, library and librarian feature too.
Thank you to the Scottish Libraries and Information Council.