Marrickville Library Visits Begin

Last week, our classes began their visits to Marrickville Library. Class teachers will take their classes to the library every fortnight this term. Students will have the opportunity to read or search for resources they need, for example, non fiction books to support their learning. We have a library borrowing card and teachers are able to borrow any extra books they may need.

Also, the Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 classes will attend a session of Storytime, conducted by the Children's Librarian, Peter. A big thanks from everyone at St Brigid's to the staff at Marrickville Library!

CC image by Phillip Martin

New Home Readers and Guided Readers

We've begun the huge task of unpacking, accessioning and distributing home reading books and guided reading books, for our students from Kindergarten to Year 6. Thanks again to Miss Mimi and Miss Nola for assisting me with their fast and efficient work.

Year 6 to the Rescue!

Our first big delivery of new books arrived on Tuesday. It was very exciting, as the boxes contained our new Home Readers and Guided Readers.  There were 60 boxes in total, and we had to convey them upstairs to the Library Workroom. What a huge job! Luckily, Year 6 students and teachers saved the day. 

They organised themselves into a human chain, snaking all the way from the delivery truck on the playground, up two flights of stairs and into the workroom. 

It was a tremendous example of teamwork, as each box was passed carefully from the hands of one student to the next. The job was finished in no time at all! Michael, the delivery driver, said he had never seen such cooperation from students before. Good on you, Year 6!

New books and a new computer

Today we received books delivered by the Rotary Club of Holroyd courtesy of Granville Public School. Particularly needed were packs of Guided Readers, which were eagerly borrowed by class teachers. Thank you to everyone concerned!

We also received a new computer, to replace one that was burnt in the fire. We use this computer to accession new books and we already have more than 200 new books accessioned.

Another wonderful surprise arrived from Better Read Than Dead bookstore in Newtown. 

They sent us several boxes of high quality picture books, novels and non fiction books. Fantastic! Here's a photo of a few of them. I had to stop myself from sitting down to read them straight away.

 

Our Good News Story

This week we were visited by Jade Wittman, from the Catholic Education Office, Sydney. Jade was there to find out how we were managing after our library fire. She arrived just as we were receiving a bulk loan delivery of books from Marrickville Library.

Click on the image below to read her good news story in About Catholic Schools magazine.

More and more donations just keep on arriving!

We're being overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people and companies, in response to our library fire. 

We're receiving donations of new and used books from other schools. The Teacher Librarian at the Newington College's Wyvern House is even organising a book drive within her school community to support us.

Publishers and book distributors have donated new books, book marks and posters. Here are some of our generous benefactors:

Delivery from Marrickville Library

Today was a happy day at St Brigid's. Our delivery of books for library borrowing arrived and the children were very excited!

Each classroom will receive a crate of books on loan from Marrickville Library. Not only did they allow us to borrow so many books, but they also delivered them for us too. Our students were keen to help with the delivery too. 

Library borrowing for all classes will begin next week. There were lots of smiles around St Brigid's today!

Donation from HarperCollins Children's Books

We received a wonderful surprise from HarperCollins Children's Books in the form of 3 huge boxes of new books. There are picture books, novels, non fiction books and early readers. Something for everyone! 

The accompanying letter reads:

"We were devastated to read about the fire at your school.
Please accept this selection of books from HarperCollins as a small contribution to your loss."

Thank you HarperCollins. We really appreciate your kind donation.

ERROR - Blogger email notification of 2013 post

If you follow this blog please disregard the email you received today that was about a library workshop. This post was actually from 2013. I have contacted Blogger to rectify this error and apologise if there has been any confusion. 

Marrickville Library supports St Brigid’s

One of the first places I turned to when I realised St Brigid's library would not be operational, was Marrickville Library and History Services. 

I was familiar with the ethos of this library because I'd completed professional placement at Marrickville Library for my Masters in Teacher Librarianship a few years ago. Also, our classes had visited and I'd promoted events and programs through my blog and school newsletters.

I knew that the staff of Marrickville Library were very supportive of the local community. When I contacted Ken Cullen, the Coordinator of Library Services, he was only too happy to help in any way needed. 

We arranged a bulk loan from Marrickville Library, to be delivered to our school next week. Our students will borrow these books, which will allow continuity of their library borrowing practice. I'll keep you posted when the books arrive! 

We've also arranged for classes to visit Marrickville library for some lessons, while our library is out of action. I know the Children's Librarians are looking forward to facilitating this later in the term.

Students will receive a flyer at school next week encouraging membership of Marrickville Library - a great idea any time, but especially important while our library is out of action.

Below is the media release from Marrickville Library regarding the support they're giving to St Brigid's:

"Marrickville Library and History is giving St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School a helping hand following the devastating fire that tore through the school in January.

The school’s library was completely destroyed in the fire — just a week before students returned for the new school year.

Marrickville Library and St Brigid’s are now working together, with librarians from both the school and the library developing a strategy ensuring children still have access to books and other valuable resources.

Mayor Sam Iskander says the Library is a key advocate in supporting the importance of literacy in primary schooling.

“Building blocks to literacy start early in life, and Marrickville Library and History helps children learn to love reading – the earlier the better, “Cr Iskander said.

 “St Brigid’s has a strong reading culture where each student has their own library bag and borrows between one and four books a week. The Library is pleased to safeguard this culture during this time of need.

 “The Library has an effective working relationship with local schools and it’s definitely a link we want to continue strengthening in the future, we have a lot to offer.

“In collaborating with St Brigid’s this way, the Library is ensuring that each child not only has access to books and the Library as a space, but we are also offering to train teachers in running activities themselves using Library materials ,” he said."

Support Flowing in from Other Schools

We've received so many offers of assistance from other schools, both within and outside our school system. 

As a member of the Inner West Teacher Librarian Network, I've received valuable advice from my colleagues, who possess a range of talents and experience in all aspects of teacher librarianship. 

Several schools have provided donations of new and used books, and have allowed us to borrow books from their own library collection. Our teachers are extremely grateful, since this means that their learning and teaching programs can proceed as planned. 

I would particularly like to thank the following:

• Brid from St Charles, Ryde who has lent us boxes of books for each of our classes, and has also donated new and used books. Thanks to one of our supportive parents, Brendan, who gave up his lunch break to collect these books. When I distributed the boxes yesterday, I was met with delight from our students.

• Grace, from St Jerome's, Punchbowl for lending us sets of much needed novels.

• Bini, from Our Lady Queen of Peace, Gladesville who, along with her husband, renowned Australian children's author Christopher Cheng, donated a selection of new and used books and lent us a class set of novels. 

Thanks also to the parents and students from St Brigid's who've donated their own books. Your support is greatly appreciated, and there are too many of you to name individually.

Lastly, I'd like to acknowledge offers of assistance from other schools in our community including Casimir Catholic College, St Maroun's College and Marrickville West Public School.

It's times like this that you realise the level of goodness and generosity that abounds in our world.

Our Temporary Library Workroom

After any type of disaster we have to be grateful for all the positives in the situation, rather than dwelling on the negatives. Two big positives are: no one was injured and we were all able to start back to school in Week 1.

Another positive is that we now have a temporary library workroom located near 2 White. We are sharing this space with the Quicksmart team. 

We have tables, shelves and chairs. We have books that have been donated and purchased. Our new barcodes and scanners have arrived and we have started to accession new books for our new library. 

A big thank you to All Barcodes Australia who not only produced new barcodes for us in one day, but also gave us 3000 barcodes at no cost. 

Our aim is to get the new books into classrooms as quickly as possible. Thanks also to Miss Mimi, my library assistant, who has been working hard to help make this happen.

St Brigid's Library Fire

On the evening of 20 January, 2016 fire crews arrived at our school to find the library on fire. Due to their skill and courage the school was saved, but the library was destroyed by the fire. 

Through this blog, I will keep parents and students updated on developments. If you wish to receive notifications of new posts, please add your email on the right side of the blog under the title "FOLLOW BY EMAIL".