Library Corner

Library News

So far this term there hasn’t been a quiet day in the library! We have classes working on research projects, Homework Help meetings after school, students recommending books to one another, or the busy Library Monitors helping the library staff with all kinds of tasks. The Year 7s had fun racing around on a library treasure hunt as a part of their library orientation, a group of VCE students were given some top-secret library hacks during a lunchtime Q&A session, and we celebrated Library Lovers’ Day on 14th February  with book blind dates and book match-making galore. The Book Club has been meeting fortnightly, and enjoying the informal chats about what they’re all reading.

The Library Captains for 2017 have now been elected, and we congratulate the successful candidates Josh Bereson and Suzannah Stone. These two leaders will be fantastic ambassadors for our school library, and we are very happy to have them on board.

The brand new library system Access-it is up and running, and our OPAC is dazzling anyone who takes a peek. Check it out (at school only) via this link: http://10.137.12.43:2000. You can also stay up-to-date with library news, events and photos on the GEC website library page.

Coming up in the library we have Cultural Diversity Week displays, a pop-up library for holiday reading and as always, plenty of new books arriving every week. (Mrs Gatt regularly publishes lists of the new items - available at the front desk!)

Karys McEwen

College Librarian

Literacy News

With the Premier’s Reading Challenge now underway, this is the perfect time to encourage a regular independent reading program at home.  Research shows that one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve a student’s reading ability is simply to spend more time reading.  There are a number of significant benefits to regularly reading which will not only support a student’s literacy but all of their future studies.

• Improves comprehension – time spent reading independently is strongly associated with overall reading achievement.
• Builds vocabulary – students who read widely learn more words and word meanings and consequently grow their vocabularies.
• Increases fluency – unless children read substantial amounts of print, their reading will remain laborious, limited in effectiveness, and lacking in fluency.
• Develops background knowledge, cultural literacy and more – Put simply; “Those that read more, know more.”

It also has a number of additional returns, including, but not limited to:

• Helping students become lifelong readers
• Allowing for students to take greater ownership over their learning
• Increasing motivation and engagement across all subject areas

Twenty minutes of sustained reading three times week is enough time to see improvements, but of course, if the student wants to read more, that’s great!  If you are worried about your child not using the time productively, many of the students across the Junior School now have “Readings Logs” in the back of their English exercise books. This is a perfect place for them to record the title of the text, the date(s) they read on and how many pages they read for, which allows them ownership over their learning but also provides some accountability.  Plus, it helps them compile a list of the texts they’ve completed for the Premier’s Reading Challenge!   

Michael Kelty

Literacy Coordinator