I decided to rename the week, "Literature Week" and had it placed on the schedule of events in our College Calendar. All the planned activities were "branded" with the Ashgrove Literature Festival logo, and banners were designed and purchased from Officeworks.
The English Staff and Library Staff joined together to plan and implement the following events:-
On Monday, August 22 we launched Literature Week with our guest speaker, Rebecca Sparrow.
We also opened our Great MSM Book Shop. Donated books from the College community were on sale for the duration of the week, with all proceeds going to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
On Tuesday, great fun was had at our Book Character Dress Up Day and Parade. (Yes, high school students, especially Year 7s love dressing up ....... and so do their teachers)
On Wednesday, we had a variety of activities on offer in the Library, including going on a "Book Character Hunt," adding to our Continuous Story and a competition to see who could wrap up a book in the fastest time.
Then on Thursday, our Year 9s listened to Performance Poet, Grace Taylor who was in Brisbane as part of the Queensland Poetry Festival, while some of our Year 10 students were selected to participate in a workshop with Dr Jo Lampert from QUT, to review the newly released picture book, "Welcome to Country" by Aunty Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy.
Meanwhile, Marist College invited some of our girls to two of their Literature Festival events:- workshops with author Jack Heath and youtuber Ty Curtis.
During lunchtime on Thursday, further fun was had in the library with our Great MSM Spelling Bee and the opportunity to create sculptural pieces from old books.
On Friday morning a number of staff listened to award-winning journalist, Matthew Condon discuss his soon to be released book, "Little fish are sweet" at the Ashgrove Council Library and at lunch time we went outdoors to "Rug up and Read" and to create some bespoke Bookmarks.
Was it a lot of work? Yes! But the feedback we've had makes it all worthwhile. If you are part of a wonderfully supportive English Department and Library team, then I'd highly recommend having some type of Literature Week at your school in 2017.
Sandra Mannion
Curriculum Leader: Library & Information Services
