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

e: libadmin@mountanville.ie

w:www.mountanville.ie/library

MOUNT ANVILLE LIBRARY

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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.