Building Program - Week 8 Progress

Our new learning spaces are beginning to take shape. Dividing walls are being built inside the new Year 6 classrooms. 

In the new library we can now see the frame of the new circulation desk. This is going to be a truly unique feature of our library. I have also included more photos of the circular parts of the ceiling, that many students have been interested to see.

Please share your thoughts on our new spaces by posting a comment below.

Building Commences Today!

Yes! When we arrived at school today, we noticed that trucks had arrived and so had the builders. Exciting weeks ahead....

Premier's Reading Challenge - We Did It!

Yes, 2016 was our Biggest Challenge Ever in the Premier's Reading Challenge. 

Why? Because we were attempting the Challenge without a library! 

Just like a tightrope walker, performing without a net.

The Challenge finished last Friday and we had 257 students complete it. I just looked back on our school's performance in the past and found out that we have beaten our previous best by 7 students, even though we didn't have our own library this year!

How did we do it? Well, firstly we had so many generous people donate quality books to us after the fire, that we were able to accession these and get them out to classrooms really quickly. We had a huge band of parents covering books and Miss Mimi and Miss Nola helping me process books in the library workroom. 

We also had great support from Marrickville Library - we had bulk loans of books and also borrowed PRC books on our visits there. Parents went to their local libraries and signed their children up to be members, so they could borrow PRC books. 

Finally, and very importantly, our Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers made sure they read 30 PRC books to their classes, and the Year 3 - Year 6 teachers encouraged and assisted their students to enter the books they had read themselves online. 

I am one happy Teacher Librarian today. Thank you to everyone who helped us to win our Biggest Challenge Ever!

Our building program to commence soon!

After months of careful planning, we're pleased to announce that the building of our new school Library will commence soon, in fact, on August 29!

The good news is that we're not just replacing our Library. No, there will be other great changes too! 

The Library will be relocated to the ground floor, where the current Year 6 and Music/Drama rooms will be refurbished to become the new Library. This will make the Library more accessible to our whole school community and it will truly be the heart of our school.

At the same time, the old Library will be transformed into a contemporary learning space for our Year 6 classes. Here are some images of the way it is now, after the fire. I'll post updates as the rebuilding progresses.

So that building can finish before the end of the year, some students will need to be relocated for the duration of the building program. 

We've received a demountable classroom that has been positioned on the playground and Year 5 will move into it, since they have a least number of students. 

Year 6 will move into the present Year 5 classrooms and Music and Drama lessons will take place in the hall until the building has finished. The plans for these new learning spaces can be viewed in the office foyer.

Our Biggest Challenge Ever!

Each year we challenge our students at St Brigid's to complete the Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC).  This year will be our biggest challenge yet - since we've lost all our library books in the fire! 

This could be a really good news story for our school. 

Imagine if all our students tried really hard to complete the Challenge this year. 

The headline could read School Loses All its Books and Still Completes the Challenge!

PRC books can be found at home, borrowed from local libraries or read online as eBooks. It's very easy to find PRC eBooks through Oliver. Simply type “premier 3-4” or “premier 5-6” in the search bar. 

For students from Kindergarten to Year 2, class teachers will read 30 PRC books to them and these are entered online. Each child will receive a certificate at the end of the year. 

When students reach Year 3, the onus is on them to read books independently and enter the titles online. Some students may need their parents’ help when entering titles online.

Students in Years 3 – 6 must read 20 books in total and of these 5 can be personal choice books, with at least 15 from the PRC list for their grade. All the rules for the PRC can be found on this site https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html , along with booklists for each level. 

I'll be encouraging students to get into the spirit of the Challenge and we will have a chart for each class, to keep track of their progress.

Don't forget this could be our BIGGEST CHALLENGE EVER!

Thank you Newington College, Stanmore

The Teacher Librarian at Wyvern House (the preparatory school of Newington College, Stanmore) organised a Book Drive to support St Brigid's Library recovery. The whole Wyvern House school community came together and collected a huge number of quality books to donate to us for our new school library. Not only did the Newington community collect the books for us, they also delivered them to our school.

The Year 6 boys from Wyvern House and our Year 6 students worked together to unload all the boxes of books and carry them to our temporary Library Workroom. 

We were so excited just opening the boxes, so I can only imagine the excitement on our students's faces when they're able to borrow the books from Newington. Our gratitude goes out to the staff, parents and students who contributed to this wonderful donation. 

The generosity continues.....

We've been so busy processing our new guided reading books that I forgot to tell you about other donations we've received recently. 

A huge thank you goes to the Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA) for their delivery of many boxes of new books including much needed multiple copies of novels. They will also be sending us teacher resource books. We needed a whole class of students to help carry so many books up to our library workroom.

Our thanks also go to John at TeeJay Publishers, all the way from Perth, WA, who sent us some student books for Mathematics linked to the Australian curriculum. 

Finally, thank you to the P & C from Stanmore Public School for their donation of books for our students to read.

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

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.

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.

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.