Library & Digital Learning

Once again, 2021 has been a year of transitioning between in-school and remote learning. For a number of years, the Library team has focused on the Learning Commons model of being a space, both physical and virtual, where students have access to the support and resources they need for their learning success.

Library resources are organised through MazCom for clarity and access as a launching point to information with easy access from either school or home. Throughout the year, students have been able to utilise digital resources, databases and study guides from home or school seamlessly and the Sora digital library has been boosted with extra ebooks and audiobooks to respond to extra demand.

Students provided their thoughts on the reading program during remote learning.

The ‘Genre Reading’ activity prompted me to get out of my comfort zone of reading similar genres and look at other genres which have a variety of language techniques. Ryan Perera (Year 9)

Reading in remote learning gave us a great opportunity to walk away from the computer and travel the world, or a world through the pages of our books, which now more than ever is one of the most important things we can do. Miguel Prado (Year 9)

During lockdown, reading classes have really brightened my day. As a class we did book reviews, funny and serious, made an advertisement to try and sell a novel, took awesome photos as a class and were always informed on good reading skills and helped if we needed help to find a book. 2021 has been kooky, but the reading periods have helped the most out of all our subjects. Hugh Fagan (Year 8)

I enjoy our library teacher Mrs Neville having frequent online meetings with the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge competitors to see how we were going. Savinu Perera (Year 7)

Digital Learning Last year in this report I stated we were ‘prepared for whatever 2021 would bring’ unaware at the time that 2021 would be a repeat of 2020. We would once again depend on quality student devices and a stable, well-organised virtual learning infrastructure to support remote learning. The growth of our learning and teaching systems in recent years, coupled with the committed learning journey of teachers who have worked hard to maintain learning momentum for students, keeps our standards high. We have stepped into a new learning era during these COVID-19 years. As Andrew Fuller suggests, we have learnt that “when nothing is certain, everything is possible”.

Camilla Elliott Head of Library & Digital Learning Resources