Belong – July 2024

Jodi Dew – Deputy Principal – Education & Robyn McGlade – Librarian

Term 3 is always a highlight for schools and libraries, with Book Week celebrations hosted during August, coinciding with the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award announcements. This year, Book Week occurs in Week 7, 19 to 23 August and the theme is ‘Reading is Magic’. During this week Mancel College students will be offered a range of activities to participate in, inspired by the theme and shortlisted books, culminating in a book character costume parade on Friday, 23 August at 8.30am, to which all parents are invited! 

Mrs Robyn McGlade, our amazing volunteer librarian, has purchased each of this year’s CBCA shortlisted books for our students to enjoy during library lessons in the weeks leading up to Book Week. Whether hard copy or digital version, Mrs McGlade is enriching our students’ lives through stories and making it her mission to connect, communicate, celebrate and advocate for the value of stories, which is the purpose and vision of Children’s Book Council of Australia. She is committed to making our library a space where students can enjoy rich texts, borrow books and be immersed in quality literature.  

Whilst the Library is currently operating in a small temporary location, it has been satisfying to tweak its layout and organisation to improve student access to the collection and to achieve a functional and aesthetically pleasing space. The recent addition of a few very comfortable chairs and a wall-mounted screen for teaching purposes has further enhanced the usability of the space. 

The Library book collection has been audited, dated and damaged resources removed, and a collection development program instituted to ensure collection-building activities are specifically targeted at bridging gaps in the collection along with meeting the current curriculum and leisure reading needs of our students.  

Funded through regular channels and the generous assistance of the PS&F Association, over 1000 new resources – picture books, graphic novels, chapter books and information books – have been added to the collection in the past 12 months, whilst the catalogue records of older items are in the process of being updated to the appropriate industry standard, as is the labelling of these resources, raising the management and appearance of the collection to a professional standard.  

All classes Prep to Year 8 currently visit the Library weekly for instructional purposes and to enable the regular borrowing of resources. Year 9 to 12 students visit with their Literacy group or English class on an ‘as needs’ basis, whilst individual senior students wishing to regularly borrow resources do so before school or during break times. 

Emily Rendell – Senior Physiotherapist – Clinical Placements Officer

As we commence Term 3, I would like to introduce our new final-year allied health tertiary students at Mancel College.

Reflecting on Term 2, we saw a range of successes through the addition of our tertiary students, such as the creation of speech pathology developed guides for teachers to enhance comprehension through staged questioning in book reading, modification of a neuroaffirming assessment in social-emotional learning to contain more accessible language, research into the impact of yoga in a school setting, and hundreds of additional sessions and support for our Mancel College students that couldn’t have occurred without their presence.

We are excited to continue this positive momentum with our Term 3 students:

Occupational Therapy Students
Full name: Nicole Smith
Start and finish date: 08/07/2024 – 13/09/2024 (Full time)
Educator/s: Nastassia Hammond/Melissa Torres

Full name: Emma Cran
Start and finish date: 08/07/2024 – 13/09/2024 (Full time)
Educator/s: Nastassia Hammond/Melissa Torres

Speech Language Pathology Students
Full name: Rosanne Burke
Start and finish date: 22/07/2024 – 12/09/2024 (Mon-Thurs)
Educator/s: Tom Reynolds

Full name: Laura James
Start and finish date: 22/07/2024 – 12/09/2024 (Mon-Thurs)
Educator/s: Tom Reynolds

Physiotherapy Students
Full name: Henry Doe
Start and finish date: 15/07/2024 – 16/08/2024 (Full time)
Educator/s: Emily Rendell

Full name: Raymond Lin
Start and finish date: 15/07/2024 – 16/08/2024 (Full time)
Educator/s: Emily Rendell

Music Therapy Student
Full name: Stefano Esposito
Start and finish date: 10/07/2024 – 13/09/2024 (Wednesdays/Fridays)
Educator/s: Britney Evans-Mackay

If you have any questions or wish to learn more, please feel free to contact me or the relevant educators listed under each student.