Gormanston College is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a National Wellread Award. Mrs Sweeney and 6 students from the Book Club will be collecting the award on the 1st of April 2025 in The Killeshin Hotel, Portlaoise, Co Laois.
The Teaching and Learning Committee along with the Book Club put together 12 initiatives to encourage reading and literacy in the school. Along with our DEAR WEEK every term we encourage teachers to tell pupils what they are reading and display a poster of the book on their classroom door. We also have a staff Book Club and an exchange for books in the staffroom. Reaching out to parents we encouraged them to join a library and make use of the facilities at their local library. 1st Years went on a visit to the local library in Balbriggan to not only see the books they have on offer but also to show them the study room they can book, the 3D printer that is available and all the amenities they can offer. The Book Club put together a box of books for our Ukrainian neighbours and wrote book reviews for our school library. Also, we are so lucky to have one of our parents manage the library and this allows our students to borrow books and have a quiet place to study. Gormanston continues to promote reading and provide spaces in the school to do so.
Book Club takes place in the school every week and here the students discuss books they have read and write reviews to share.
The students also help out at Drop Everything and Read Week which happens every term. The whole school bring in a book and read it for the last 10mins of the day along with the teachers. It is just one of many initiatives here at Gormanston College to promote reading and literacy in the school.
The students also take part in Junior Juries the KPMG Children’s Book awards where they choose a book to read from the nominated books and rate it. On March 6th they will also promote World Book Day in the School encouraging students to pick up a book and make use of the school library. Also, this year for the first time we are going to write Our Class Book. Students are going to recommend books that they love to read and write a review. This means their words will end up in print!