Our focus on literacy this year has been guided by our application for the Wellread National Award. This accolade is awarded to
schools in recognition of their success in creating a reading culture within the whole school community. The initiative involves
everyone who impacts on student learning including students, teachers & other staff, parents, management and the wider community
in a range of reading and associated activities. We believe that this national award will explicitly foster and nurture a reading culture in
our school and will bring about an overall improvement in the literacy skills of our students in a fun and engaging way.
Some of the literacy initiatives that were carried out by the library included the survey of incoming 1st year students about their
reading habits, timetabled reading for pleasure classes for 1st & 2nd year students, book clubs, writing competitions, author visits and
many other events. While 1st year students borrowings are reasonably high, borrowings by students in the other year groups show
room for improvement. Next year, we will focus on encouraging our 1st, 2nd & 4th year students to develop a reading habit.
Let’s have a look at some of the other highlights. Our library received a beautiful new makeover including modern mobile shelving and
flexible furniture. It is very suitable for collaborative learning and on average 11 class visits were held in the library each week
including subject research classes and information literacy classes. This represented an increase of over 20%. In addition to class
visits, about 6000 individual students used the library during the year for their research, project work and homework.
We are delighted to announce that all of our efforts paid off and in June 2016 Mount Anville was informed that it is to receive the
Wellread National Award in September 2016. Joan Foley, Librarian
At a glance...
We to
read!
Why Reading for Pleasure Matters... A number of recent studies show evidence that children who read for pleasure gain advantages, both in academic progress and in
personal development, that last their whole lives. This year, schools throughout Ireland were invited to apply for the Wellread National
Award as a means of encouraging school communities to create a reading culture that will bring about an overall improvement in the
literacy skills of our students .
Mount Anville has continued with a number of initiatives to promote reading for pleasure. In particular, 1st and 2nd year students have
had the benefit of timetabled reading for pleasure classes for half of the year. This has resulted in over 2000 items being borrowed by
students.
Our analysis of student issues during the period 2015-2016 shows that student borrowings dropped significantly in 2nd Year. This was
not the case in 2014-2015. You can help by encouraging your daughter to continue reading over the summer, to participate in the
reading events and activities and by taking part in our parents’ activities.
Next year, the library with the literacy team will concentrate on encouraging our 1st, 2nd & 4th year students to develop a reading habit.
Our Book Clubs There were three book clubs this year for 1st years, 2nd
years and 3rd year students.
1st years loved the modern classic ‘The Giver’ by Lois
Lowry. As a treat, we all sat down and watched the film
adaptation of the book. Another favourite voted
*****Unputdownable was ‘The Real Rebecca’ by Anna
Carey.
2nd Years loved ‘The Sky is Everywhere’ by Jandy Nelson
and were also big fans of dystopian fiction.
The favourite genre of both the 2nd and 3rd Year book clubs
is romantic dystopian fiction. 3rd Year favorites included
‘The Red Queen’ by Victoria Aveyard and ‘The Jewel’ by
Amy Ewing, both achieving the *****Brilliant rating.
“A book is a dream you hold in your hand.” - Neil Gaiman
Follow us for up-to-date news
about authors, events and
writing competitions.
@MountAnvilleLib
1ST YEAR BOOK CLUB MEMBERS
events@mountanville
Students love to meet their favourite authors to find out what inspired their favourite
book and how they became a writer. This year, Brian Gallagher visited 1st years to talk
about his book ‘Friend or Foe 1916: Which side are you on?’ and creative writing.
Our past pupil Sinéad Moriarty spoke to our TY students about creative writing. Sinéad
won the Bord Gáis Energy Popular Book of the Year for her novel ‘The Way We Were’.
She is also a columnist with the Irish Independent.
The author Donal Ryan gave an inspiring talk to our 5th years describing the cultural
context of his book 'The Spinning Heart'. This book is included in the list of texts
prescribed for comparative study in the Leaving Certificate 2017 exam.
As part of the information literacy
programme, first year students received six
information literacy classes. These classes
are developed and delivered by the librarian
and the topics covered are
Dewey Decimal System - how the library
collection is organised,
Using the library catalogue,
Effective searching using the internet,
Getting the most from the print and
online reference resources,
How to avoid Plagiarism,
Effective ways to plan and research a
project or assignment.
This year Moodle was used to assess
students by means of an online quiz each
week.
In addition, the librarian delivered research
skills classes to students who were preparing
a research topic/project for their state exams
including Senior Level Home Economics and
History.
Information Literacy
“Information Literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to
find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.” CILIP
Author Visits
On 3 March ,World Book Day was celebrated with a Blind Date with a Book event
and a Drop Everything and Read class. There were lots of beautifully wrapped
books, each described using only a few key phases, left carefully around the school
waiting for a new partner. Afterwards readers could rate their dates. Megan
O’Rourke, Dargan 3 won the large Easter egg.
World Book Day
Our Favourites Reads...
Title Author
The Selection Series Cass, Kiera
Gone Series Grant, Michael
Girl, Missing Series McKenzie, Sophie
The Testing Series Charbonneau, Joelle
The Real Rebecca Series Carey, Anna
Friend or foe? : 1916 Gallagher, Brian
City of bones Clare, Cassandra
Red Queen Aveyard, Victoria
Divergent Roth, Veronica
Fangirl Rowell, Rainbow
Mount Anville Secondary School
Goatstown
Dublin 14
t: 01-2885313
w:www.mountanville.ie/library
MOUNT ANVILLE LIBRARY
//twitter.com/MountAnvilleLib
An example of student leadership within Mount Anville is the very
successful student librarian programme. Its aim is to promote the library
and to increase the usage of the library service. This year, 19 students
volunteered in the library during their lunch breaks. I can honestly say
that the library service was greatly enhanced by their contribution.
I would like to applaud and thank the following students for all their
enthusiastic work in the library this year. Second Years included Pippa
Clarke, Caoimhe Hudson, Rachel Ryan, Jahnavi Sinha, Eva Wang &
Helen Wu. Third years include Eva Cahalane, Anna Flynn, Alannah
Kirkham, Grace Maddock O’Driscoll, Ellen Moore, Grace
O’Hanrahan, Megan O’Rourke, Andrea Reade, Isabel Ryan, Summer
Ryan & Caroline Sheedy. TY students include Claire Hughes & Ria
Reddy. Finally, a special word of thanks to Sr. Joan Hutchinson for
all her hard work during the year. You make a huge difference!
Our Student Librarians...
Autumn Writing Competition
Some of our Student Librarians
Congratulations to everyone who entered our Autumn Writing Competition on the theme of
1916. The standard was extremely high.
Here are the winners. Senior Cycle - 1st Place Anna Fitzgerald Duchesne 4 , 2nd Place
Anna Smith Chadwick 6 & Highly Commended Sarah Molloy Duchesne 4. Junior
Cycle Third Year - 1st Place Megan O'Rourke Dargan 3 , 2nd Place Ella O'Flynn
Chadwick 3 & Highly Commended Grace Cahill Duchesne 3. Junior Cycle Second
Year - 1st Place Lucy Coleman Duchesne 2 & 2nd Place Millie McCarthy Chadwick 2.
Junior Cycle First Year - 1st Place Flora McDonnell Dargan 1 & 2nd Place Grace
Murphy Duchesne 1.
You can read all of the winning entries on the library website www.mountanville.ie/library.
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