Library News

The library will host our annual school chess tournament on Friday 14 March. It will take the form of a knockout competition, with individual trophies for the best junior and senior chess player. There are limited places available so please enquire with library staff if you are interested. 

At recess and lunch students partake in a full range of games and projects in the library. For instance, last Thursday Charlotte S was using an app called Ibis Paint to create stickers. She enjoys using this app “to make stickers for my friends and the library.” Whereas David P spent time honing his artistic talents by drawing different animals as shown below. 

The library just purchased three new books documenting Australians at war. They are Dive! Australian Submariners at War, The Legend of Albert Jacka and The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli written by Ryan Butta who grew up in the Hunter Valley. His book follows the life of Harry Freame the first Australian to win the distinguished Conduct Medal at Gallipoli. Freame was raised as a samurai, risking his life repeatedly to scout the beaches and hills of the battlefield, reporting invaluable intelligence back to his officers and relieving stranded soldiers who otherwise would surely have died. 

After the war, Harry (real name Henry Wykeham Koba Freame) became a soldier settler and champion apple grower. But when Japan emerged as a perceived threat to Australia, Harry was recruited into Australian intelligence to spy on the Japanese community in Sydney. Before Japan’s entry into World War II, Australia opened a diplomatic legation in Tokyo, and Harry was sent as a translator – but his real role was a spy. Extraordinarily, his cover was leaked by the Australian press, and the Japanese secret police tried to assassinate him not long after his arrival in Tokyo in 1941. Harry died back in Australia a few weeks later, but his sacrifice has never been acknowledged by Australia.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to our Years 7 – 10 students from Monday 24 February. Participants can experience quality literature from a range of authors and genres. Students will need to read twenty books, including at least ten books from the prescribed PRC reading lists. Please email Mr Boyce on andrew.boyce@mn.catholic.edu.au if you wish to register.  

Mrs Medhurst will run the NRL Footy Tipping competition again this year. The season will kick off on Sunday 2 March and continue for twenty-seven rounds. From Round Two onwards, the deadline for submitting tips will be 3.15pm on Thursday afternoons. At the end of the twenty-seven rounds the top three place getters will receive prizes. It is free for staff and students to enter. A leaderboard will be available for viewing in the junior fiction area of the library once the competition starts. 

Finally, the library has a range of items available for loan including fiction and non-fiction titles, also available in eBook and audiobook format. We look forward to providing a range of new programs, services and displays to both staff and students this year. 

Andrew Boyce

Teacher/Librarian