Library Services
That was the year that was…
As we near the end of the 2025 school year, once again, we can look back and see what an incredibly busy year it has been for the Library Services Faculty.
Staffing our three Libraries, SJQ, PCL and SCGL is a daily challenge, but one that is undertaken and managed with professionalism and consideration, keeping in mind the quality of service we strive to provide for both our students and staff.
Library clubs are continuing to prove to be very popular with our students and continue to grow in number. We now offer a total of 9 clubs across the three campuses.
The Premier’s Reading Challenge has continued for our more junior students (although pleasingly some of our Year 10 students have requested to continue participating!) This year a total of 40 eager readers participated.
The numbers at our ASH (After School Homework) program have continued to grow, with students undoubtedly realizing the value of that time after school is well spent getting on top of their homework, with the assistance of senior tutors and staff.
A trial of the App, Beanstack, has been undertaken by a number of junior students. This App enables students to log their regular reading and will be used with a selected group of Year 7s next year.
A visit from The Seeing Eye Dogs was one of the highlights of the year, and a very well supported fundraiser proved to be popular, along with the visits to each campus Library.
Our end of year Libraries Clubs excursion was a huge success. Students from Years 7-9 travelled by train and visited Yarn Sista Strong where they created art from natural materials including ochre. They learnt about First Nations culture and new Aboriginal words. The Narrm Ngarrgu Library and Family Services was also visited, and here the students learnt about the types of supports a city library can offer students both now and into the future. They were very interested in the collection and the Maker Space facilities. Lastly, they visited the Sticky Institute, a zine making place, where they got to see a collection of tiny books from an array of topics including politics, art and fantasy. All in all a great day!
Competitions in the Libraries are always popular and among these this year were Harry Potter Trivia, Book an Adventure Scavenger Hunt, Comic’s Plus Graphic Novel Competition, Guess How Many Chocs (raising funds for the Seeing Eye Dogs), SJQ Reading Challenge (with an impressive effort from our Senior students!) The Staff Reading with the Seasons Competition and finally, The Sports Reading Challenge.
Lastly, the introduction of Reading Awards this year has been an important way to express the importance of reading and books in the lives of our students. A student from each year level was selected on both participation in Library activities and the number of books read throughout the year!
All this, along with our day to day busyness, our wonderful displays and the fortnightly Wide Reading classes for Years 7-10, as you can see, there is never a dull moment in our Libraries!
Happy Reading everyone!
