Library News
The library has been a hive of activity this term. We began the year with Year 7 library orientations and a start on finding out each Year 7 students' genre personality to help with their reading choices.
Excitingly, we hosted the English Faculty author visit with Pip Harry, author of Are you these Buddha? She was a fantastic presenter and had a wealth of knowledge on writing to share with students.
We saw in Luna New Year with a focus on books with dragons, as well as promoting Asian authors, protagonists and settings. Students who borrowed at that time all received a token of luck wishing them a prosperous start to the year.
The Premier’s Reading Challenge opened this term and students are encouraged to undertake the challenge to read twenty books. Participants only need to log their reading on the official Premier’s Reading Challenge website and I will validate their record once it is complete.
On Library Lover’s Day, we ran our annual blind date with a book activity, and had stations for students to create heart corner bookmarks and provided heart shaped magnets for them to put their own original designs on. Students who borrowed the blind date books had the option to complete a book review slip and enter the draw to win a Lindt heart-shaped chocolate tin; one lucky student was given the sweets to enjoy with a good book.
We did a follow up surprise book activity to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Students could test their luck by borrowing a green wrapped book, hopefully finding that it held a story they would enjoy. One student had a second dose of luck finding our lucky prize token and swapping it for an item of their choice from our prize stash.
Our new library leadership team was formed through our annual application process. Our library monitors and our library ambassadors are true advocates for the role of libraries in society and for reading for enjoyment. I am looking forward to working with them across the year to run a number of events and activities, to support our school community and to further develop our book collection.
On Harmony Day the library hosted a Harmony Day Trivia event. We had an amazing turnout of teams competing and the event ended in a three-way tie. To determine the winner a follow up Jeopardy based trivia event was held. With the victors being rewarded canteen vouchers. Congratulations to the Senior team for their phenomenal result, which showcased how well versed they are in historical events, cultural knowledge and geographical facts.
We’ve ended the term celebrating International Poetry Day, with a number of poetry related activities for students to do, celebrating Ramadan with our reading challenge and lastly a book scavenger hunt for Easter. You can keep up with library events through our Instagram page @hkhs_library.
Our loan limits have changed this year with loans for fiction and non-fiction extended to a three week loan period and due to the high popularity of manga and graphic novels they are now loaned for a one week period. E-books remain on a two week loan period. Overdue notices are now being sent to student email accounts. Please make sure to renew or return loans promptly to ensure all students have access to the range of titles on offer.
Miss Shelley Klein
Librarian