Loving the Library @ MSC

On Friday 30th August, we all celebrated Wear It Purple day.  The Library participated by hosting Jay Carmichael, a queer author who visited our school to talk to our Year 9 students for Wear It Purple Day.

Jay is a fiction writer and an editor for Orygen Youth Health. He has written two novels, one of these titled Ironbark.

During the sessions, Jay talked to our students about:

• Wear It Purple Day – what is the purpose of WIPD, the focuses of WIPD being Awareness – Opportunity – Environment – Collaboration
• How things have changed since he was in secondary school (Wear It Purple Day didn’t exist then)
• What WIPD means to him and other LGBTIQ young people
• Some of the things that schools are doing to support LGBTIQ young people
• Growing up Gay in a small country town and coming out to his family and friends
• Some information about LGBTIQ history and how things have changed for the better
• Why he started writing and how this has been a positive thing for him
• His work at Orygen Youth Health
• Mental health and young people, particularly mental health of LGBTIQ young people – he shared some stats about anxiety and depression

At the end of each session, Jay made himself available to have a chat with some of our students.

The library is open from 8.30am – 4.30pm. Recess and lunchtime are for schoolwork, study or independent reading.  We are now offering a DVD loan service.  Students may borrow 4 items on a fortnightly basis and are able to re-borrow if required.