The Wellread national initiative, designed and organised by the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), has had a wonderful impact on the quantity and quality of reading undertaken in Margaret Alyward Community College throughout the year. The Wellread programme has also formed part of our Literacy School Self-Evaluation. The Wellread programme aims to create a heightened awareness about the importance of creating a culture of reading in school communities which is so important for both the personal and academic development of students.
Congratulations to the school’s Wellread Steering Committee, led by Ms. Ann-Marie O’Shea and Sarah Purcell JCSP Librarian, for leading the implementation of the programme this year. The Steering Committee has worked very hard to promote reading throughout the whole school community by involving students, parents, teaching and ancilliary staff, and also the wider community. The school’s Literacy Noticeboard has been a constantly changing information platform for us all. Reading initiatives undertaken included Book Clubs, Drop Everything and Read, a JCSP Make a Book Exhibition with a 1916 theme, and book swaps involving parents, teachers, and students. During a book sale, to celebrate World Book Day, Ms. O’Shea looked splendid dressed as Mary Poppins as did Ms. Flanagan who was dressed as Alice in Wonderland. The development of reading within the school was also advanced through the involvement of an online digital library and Ballymun Dublin City Council Public Library, a visit from the author Ms. Sheena Wilkinson, and a parent reading circle. With the aim of spreading a love of reading to the school’s wider community boxes of books were delivered to a local EBS office and Shay’s Costcutter supermarket.
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