At the Blacktown North Public School Library students are encouraged to develop a love for reading.
Students experience books from our broad collection of junior fiction, senior fiction and non-fiction resources. The collection includes all of the books that have been most recently short-listed by the children's book council of Australia as well as many from the short-lists of prior years.
The purpose of library lessons
To foster a love of reading, and encourage at every step assisted and then independent reading for enjoyment and entertainment. Then later to transfer an understanding of the worth of information skills, encouraging their use and the gaining of proficiency for the betterment of student self-research.
Kindergarten students are learning to predict the story of a book through picture walks and are also learning to recognise and decide on the genre of a book.
Students attend a library lesson for one hour each week during which they are given the opportunity to browse, borrow and immerse themselves in books that they enjoy.
This year, students are also being encouraged to participate in the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge — an initiative of the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) that aims to energise students to read to a greater extent and from a wider selection of books than they might otherwise consider.
As part of their overall literacy development, library lessons also offer students a brief opportunity to learn about and apply the Information skills process — an approach to conducting research that has been endorsed by the NSW DEC.
The process focuses on assisting students to define a research question, then to locate, select, organise and present relevant information about that question. In this way, library lessons support the development of research skills that underpin the academic success of students once they enter high school.
