Shanah Tovah!

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year feast and celebration. It is the first of the “High Holy Days” of Judaism, and is followed closely by Yom Kippur.

source: CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Jewish Calendar is a lunar calendar, therefor the dates of Rosh Hashanah and other Jewish holidays will vary according to the Gregorian Calendar (the standard calendar used in most of the world for politics, business and daily life.)  In 2025 Rosh Hashanah begins at Sundown on September 22 and ends at nightfall of September 24. According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5786.

Shanah Tovah!

Find out more:

Rosh Hashanah 101

Chabad.org

History.com

International Day of Peace

Peace Day is observed every September 21. The International Day of Peace is a celebration of those who have worked for peace in our, and who continue to seek a peaceful future. However, the day is also a stark reminder of how far we have fallen short of the quest for lasting peace for humanity. Our world continues to be ravaged by war, including, in our current day, some of the most horrific acts of inhumanity imaginable. Learn more about the International Day of Peace and join in the movement.

Learn more:

UN.org/Peaceday

Actions for a Peaceful World

Hear Us

Act Now for a Peaceful World

InternationalDayofPeace.org

School Libraries and Intellectual Freedom

School Libraries should be bastions of intellectual freedom. Tragically, the School Library has always been a battleground in the struggles between those that would protect our rights and freedoms and those that would impose their beliefs on others.

This has become all too evident in the U.S. in recent years, and sadly we in Canada are not immune. Provincial Ministries of Education, School Boards, and individual schools and school libraries have been sucked into the current climate of extreme political polarization. Attacks on the freedom to read are on the rise, and include recent decisions made by the government of Alberta. The following are quotes from the response of Canadian School Libraries:

“Individual parents have the right to decide on their child’s reading, but they do not have the right to impose it on everyone.

The selection and availability of school library and learning resource materials should be made by trained professionals, not politicians and bureaucrats.

Not every book in a school library is meant for every student. Schools need to have a wide range of age and developmentally appropriate resources that cover the needs of the student population.

School library collections, with a richness and diversity that allows students to see themselves and experience lives other than their own, are developed within the lens of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights and freedoms it affords to all Canadians, including children.”


Find out more about Canadian School Libraries

Surrey Schools ONE

Students.
Parents.
Teachers.

Check this out: A portal to a world of online resources. Go where google alone can’t get you.

Created by Teacher-Librarians, Surrey Schools One is your first stop before linking to recommended online resources, many of which are subscription based but free to you as a member of the Surrey Schools community. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or an educator in the Surrey School District, you will find quick and easy access to essential resources with Surrey Schools One.

SurreySchoolsOne

Have you checked out our latest “genrefication” updates?

Come down to your School Library to see the reorganization of our fiction collection. We have moved Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Adventure onto their own shelves. You can still find other genres, such as Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Classic, Adult Literacy, and more, on the “General Fiction” shelves.

We have also created a Biography section. Learn more about the lives of all sorts of people, some famous, some not-so-famous, some heroes, some villains… We have biographies (and autobiographies) of activists, athletes, singers, writers, leaders, scientists, actors, thinkers, musicians, artists, and more.

Click here to see our School Library Map

Join the Library Team!

The School Library is open for the 2025-2026 school year. However, we need student volunteers so that we can offer borrowing options to students at lunch. If you are interested in joining us, come down to the School Library to learn more!

Could this be YOU?

Please also fill out our online application form let us know that you are interested.

Find out more about the Library Team

National Indigenous Peoples Day

From the Government of Canada:

“June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day. This is a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The Canadian Constitution recognizes these three groups as Aboriginal peoples, also known as Indigenous peoples.

Although these groups share many similarities, they each have their own distinct heritage, language, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs.

In cooperation with Indigenous organizations, the Government of Canada chose June 21, the summer solstice, for National Aboriginal Day, now known as National Indigenous Peoples Day. For generations, many Indigenous peoples and communities have celebrated their culture and heritage on or near this day due to the significance of the summer solstice as the longest day of the year.”

Find out more:

 Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Indigenous Peoples and Communities

Indigenous arts, culture and heritage

Anne Frank

Anne Frank was born on this day in 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her family moved to the Amsterdam in 1933, among the over 300,000 Jews who fled Germany between the rise of Hitler and the onset of WW2. Nevertheless, the Netherlands fell to the Nazis in 1940. Eventually Anne and her family went into hiding in 1942. While hiding in the “Secret Annex,” Anne would write what would become perhaps the most famous diary in history, published after the war as The Diary of a Young Girl. The Franks were betrayed, discovered, and arrested, in 1944. Anne and her sister perished in Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi death camp, in 1945. Most of her family ended up numbered among the more than 100,000 Dutch Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust, although her father survived. It was he who discovered Anne’s diary and was able to have it published so that many generations may be enriched by it.

Find out more:

Anne Frank The Writer

Anne Frank House

Anne Frank Fonds (Foundation)

Indigenous Peoples Collection

Celebrate National Indigenous History Month in Canada by learning more about First Nations, Metis and Inuit people. Come down to your School Library to browse through our Indigenous Peoples Collection. This section of the School Library is devoted to titles from authentic indigenous writers.

All titles in the Indigenous Peoples Collection are designated with spine labels bearing the “IPC” prefix. Sublocations in the IPC include:

  • Coast Salish
  • Northwest Coast
  • First Nations
  • Inuit
  • Metis
  • Urban
  • Global
  • Own Voice
  • Truth and Reconciliation

and more…

June is National Indigenous History Month in Canada.