Love Your Library

A welcoming place of comfort ahead of exams

With upper school examinations over it is now time for Year 10 exams. Once again, the Library is full of students using their spare time to prepare, or meet with their teachers for one-on-one tutorials. 

The Library provides a comfortable space for teaching staff and students to work. 

Homework Club is likewise busy, with many of our students making the most of this valuable opportunity to get assistance from teaching staff. Homework Club runs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Students who are not signed up for Homework Club are also welcome and can sign-in as they enter the Library. Students need to remember to bring their work with them and to maintain a studious approach to their studies during this time.

Mrs Sykiotis has again prepared some interesting resources for Wider Reading in English. The Year 7 students, who have been working on short films, were introduced to a selection of our short story collection. Year 8 students worked with the correlation between novels and popular film by examining film poster and novel covers. Year 9 students, who have been studying dystopian fiction, were introduced to a selection of our dystopian novels – of which we have many.

In the meantime, our LibGuide collection has grown. In collaboration with Ms Jonas, we have published a comprehensive OLNA LibGuide. Having worked with colleagues in other schools to prepare students for OLNA, I am aware of how difficult it is to support these students as we are not given access to the tests or support material. Ms Jonas has a trove of material to support her students. This has been curated and added to to provide an on-going resource for our students. The resources have been carefully organised to enable students to work through a variety of learning tasks without being overwhelmed.

Currently we are working on a LibGuide focused on “Our Place”. This will look at the history of the site of our school and will also provide information acknowledging the original custodians of the land on which our school is built. The guide will provide resources for teachers for NAIDOC Week. Our collection of LibGuides is slowly growing, with guides for literature, geography, psychology, and many more on the way. They are fantastic resources for the students to use. 

Campion delivered a selection of new fiction for our collection. I cannot wait to see what exciting new reads we have. I am currently struggling through Bodies of Light, by Jennifer Down. This novel won the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award. The plot follows the life of a woman from a childhood of abuse into a tough and confronting adult life. On the cover of the novel the word “brutal” is used by a number of reviewers. “Brutal” is a perfect description. I am really working hard to get through the novel. On the other hand, driven by curiosity, I am rereading the Dune series by Frank Herbert. First read many years ago when I was at school, it is still holding my attention. I look forward to my 30 minutes of Dune every night. Seeing the films has not diminished the pleasure I am getting from relaxing into this reading at the end of my day. It is like meeting an old friend. 

Together, let us read.

Dr Annette Pedersen

Library Coordinator