In recent weeks, I have been fortunate to attend and speak at conferences that have featured speakers from School Libraries and educational settings around Australia and have been able to confer with colleagues that school libraries have the goal to engage students in all facets of reading and literacy (i.e for enjoyment and learning) high on their agenda. We are very fortunate at Kilbreda College that we sustain an embedded reading culture, supported by our whole school community and backed by professional research:

“…, a school culture that fosters positive attitudes toward reading, and that positions it as a socially-acceptable practice, can be conducive to improving the literacy attainment of its students, amongst other benefits” (Merga & Mason, 2019)

During Term 3, Years 7, 8 and 9 Reading Connections classes have been fully involved in critically looking at the Children’s Book Council (CBCA) selection of Australian Notable Books from 2023, featuring new and exciting literature. The students assessed their ideas against the CBCA Criteria  as to what constitutes well-written and interesting  literature for teens and pre-teens.

As a lead-in to our  Book Week activities, all students in reading classes were invited to vote for their favourite titles as an in-house fiction ‘pick the book of the year’ competition with winners announced in Book Week.

As you read this article we will be celebrating our annual Book Week 2024, from Monday 19 to Friday 23 August with the Kilbreda community, so stay tuned for the wrap-up and images in our next Library news feature!

Happy reading!

Joyce Sendeckyj

Head of Library

On behalf of the Kilbreda Library Team

Reference

Merga, M.K. & Mason, S. (2019). Building a school reading culture: Teacher librarians’ perceptions of factors contributing to school reading cultures. Australian Journal of Education, 63(2), 173-189. DOI: 10.1177/0004944119844544