On Wednesday 28 January, the Scottish Children’s Book Awards group met Joel, our visitor from Malawi.

Joel is a refugee and he met the pupils and talked to them about what it’s like to be a refugee, what refugee status means and told them about some of the barriers he faces. The class heard first-hand why someone flees their country and why they have to seek asylum. Pupils asked lots of questions and Joel gave them badges and pens, courtesy of The Scottish Refugee Council, at the end of the session.

Joel also met pupils in the Modern Studies department and told them about Malawi and his journey to Scotland.

We are grateful to The Scottish Refugee Council for their support with Joel’s visit to school.

A merged version (pdf format – approx 3.4MB) of the 2015 Handbook is available by clicking the red ‘School Handbook’ button on the right hand side.

We are very excited about our forthcoming Harry Potter Book Night at Elgin Academy.

Thursday 5th February 2015 will see the first ever Harry Potter Book Night celebrated throughout the world and here at Elgin Academy, we are getting ready for our own special evening of wizard activities. Full details are on the Library page here

Congratulations to S4 student Cameron Main, who won the Great Edinburgh Interdistrict Cross Country U17 boys race in Holyrood Park on Saturday 10 January 2015. Cameron was always at the front sharing the lead with the favourite from the west, but he timed his race perfectly to take the title in very challenging conditions. Well done Cameron – we look forward to hearing of future successes!

We are marking Holocaust Memorial Day 27 January 2015 during our S2 Book Talks in January

Holocaust Memorial Day is a time for everyone to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. On HMD we can honour the survivors of these regimes and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today. 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

One of the ways in which we will mark Holocaust Memorial Day will be in the S2 Library book talks next week, when the books Once, Now and Then by Morris Gleitzman will be discussed with pupils. Our S6 Auschwitz Ambassadors, Grace Carter and Michael Bowley will show the S2 pupils their powerpoint presentation and will add to the talks and share some of their impressions from their trip to Poland and the Auschwitz camp.

Full details are on the Library-S2 pages or click here