The collection continues to be updated and relevant to the boys’ interests and supports the requirements of the Australian Curriculum. Several new series have enticed the boys to read more, including Fly Guy, Mates and graphic novels for the younger boys and You Choose Adventures, My Life, Spirit Animals, Bear Grylls and Ahn Do.
DEB SCHINCKEL
Teacher/Librarian
I have continued my role in supporting teachers in the co-operative planning and resourcing in English, History and Geography. With the endorsement of version 8.0 of the Australian Curriculum, Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) will replace and combine History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship and Economics and Business. This will mean current, accurate and appropriate resources will be required to connect these areas and part of my role is to source these. Resourcing these areas of the curriculum include investigating possible venues for excursions. I have assisted staff in several year levels in planning and supervising excursions to Mudgereebaba Heritage Museum, Light Horse Museum, Commissariat (Brisbane), Eureka Gold Fields (Beenleigh), Local Studies Library and Southport Cemetery, Surfworld, Q1.
FOP chose to support author-illustrator visits this year so we were able have workshops for boys in all year levels. Frances Watts worked with Preschool
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and Reception boys sharing her stories and introducing songs and dance relating to the themes. Andrew King, engineer come author, worked with the Years 1 and 2 boys. Andrew’s writing comes from a design perspective and his stories of Engibear focus on design and building structures. Frané Lessac workshopped with Years 3 and 4. Frané writes historical Australian fiction and shared her writing process and illustration techniques with the boys. They each produced their own illustration and accompanying text. Mark Greenwood again worked with the Year 5 boys, focusing on his knowledge of Australian history. He engages the boys with his story telling and recount and has them wanting more. Oliver Phommavanh entertained Year 6 with his unique story-writing techniques and stories relating to his Thai background. Trevor Fourmile entertained and informed the Year 2 group with his Dreamtime stories and cultural facts and also workshopped with Year 4 relating to “First Contact” and the effects of colonisation on the Aboriginal population. I sincerely thank FOP for their support in this literacy program. The benefits for the boys are numerous and is a valuable way to promote reading and writing.
In March I took a group of Year 6 boys to the Somerset Celebration of Literacy. The sessions the boys attended included authors Geoffrey McSkimming, James Maloney, Scott Prince and Dave Hartley, AL Tait, Rachel Spratt, Richard Newsome and George Ivanoff. A great day of entertainment, including magic tricks, jokes and writing processes. The boys purchased books from the book store and came away with some great new ideas on reading and knowledge of previously unfamiliar authors.
