Our Reseource Centre was renamed The MacKillop Centre in 2015 in honour of Australia's first saint, Saint Mary MacKillop, who was so passionate about giving all children an opportunity to learn. It is our hope and vision that The MacKillop centre is a place of community, where we can all come together to learn, work and relax.
The Mackillop Centre is located in the heart of our school and is easily accessible by all staff and students. It houses a vast collection of fiction and non-fiction resources for students to use and borrow.
The resouce collection has been carefully compiled to support the effective implementation of the Australia Curriculm. Students, teachers and staff have access to a wide range of contemporary resources that support and enrich learning and teaching.
What We Do
The Mackillop Centre is staffed by a Teacher-Librarian and Library Assistant. There is a variety of flexible spaces within the library for staff and students to work in small groups, individually or as a whole class. There are speces for whol class shared reading and nooks for students to quietly relax and curl up with a book. It is common to see students coding robits and designing solutions in one area of the library, whilst a second class of students and their teacher are engaging in a story and choosing their own books in another area. The MacKillop Centre is a vibrant and engaging space.
The collection is managed online using the OLIVER database.
- Year 4, 5 and 6 students can access the catalogue via a link on their iPad.
- Teachers and staff have access via the Staff Portal
- All students have access to the SORA App, an online digital library that is managed by Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE). This allows students to download audio and ebooks onto their device.
Each class visits the library once a week. Students can borrow up to four books each week and more for school holiday periods. Students are encouraged to maek informed choices about what they borrow. In the early years we provide stategies to guide the students in choosing a book that will suit their reading ability and their interests.
Students in the yourger year levels also borrow take-home readers that are distributed from their classroom. These are levelled according to individual reading ability. All students need a woaterproof library bag for transporting books. The bags are available from the Uniform Shop.
Reading Promotion
At Our Lady of the Rosary (OLR) we believe that reading is one of the most important skills that a child needs in order be a usseccful learner throughout their entire life. Success in reading starts with a desire to read and a love of books and great stories. A variety of literature-based opportunities are made available throughout the year to encourage our young people to become life-long readers and learn to love reading:
- Celebration of Library Lovers Day (14 February)
- Partication in the National Simultaneous Storytime event held annually by the Australian Library Information Association (ALIA).
- Queensland Premier's Reading Challenge annually in Term 2 & 3
- Year 6 school-based Readers Cup competition in Term 1
- Children's Book Council of Australia (Qld Branch) Year 6 Regional Readers' Cup Competition in Term 2.
- Children's Book council of Australia Book Week Celebrations: Dress-up and literature-based actvities (annual event in August).
- Perform Musicals celebrates Book Week
- Author visits
- Scholastic Book Club magazines offering quality reading materials to students and families twice a term. The books are delivered to the school.
- Book Club for senior students.