Our Wellread Journey
The PDST ‘Wellread National Award’ is a national initiative designed and organised by the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). It aims to create heightened awareness about the importance of creating a culture of reading in school communities for our young people as part of their personal and academic development.
LCF Reading Ambassadors
As part of our World Book Day celebrations on March 4th 2021, we invited parents and teachers to help us promote reading for pleasure, by becoming the school's first 'Reading Ambassadors'. Responses were received from staff across subject areas and from a number of parents. We will publish these slowly over the coming weeks and are pleased to start with our first two parent contributions:
'Reading is so important to me! And in the last year more than ever it has been something that can help to leave the cares of the world behind. I have had time to read more than usual recently for obvious reasons, and it has given me the chance to read many of the most popular books of recent times, such as “Normal People”, “Where the Crawdads Sing” and “Such a Fun Age”. However, I also went back to some of my favourite classics and have just loved revisiting some of the best characters in literature from Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice”, Becky Sharp in “Vanity Fair” and “David Copperfield” himself. Far from being boring, dusty old novels, I really recommend reading the classics purely for the brilliant writing, incredible characters, and entertaining storylines!'
Caoimhe O’Neill
With busy lives and remote work, you just don't get to have the same kinds of conversations that you used to. This makes books even more interesting for me - so many adventures to share, so many ideas to discover, so many lives and stories to learn from!
I really miss the weekend browsing in a local library or bookstore. And even buying books online, I still go for a paper edition every time I can - if only to flick through the crisp pages for the first time or notice that distinct new book smell.
Gleb Reys
2017-2021
Since our success in achieving the WellRead award in 2017, the school has continued to maintain a culture of reading for pleasure amongst the whole school community. Over the past few years our committee and students have devised and embraced new reading initiatives and we have regularly reviewed our approach to ensure that our WellRead activities are never stale. Not even a global pandemic could dampen our enthusiasm, as we adapted to the new online learning community that Covid foisted upon us.
2016/17
During the academic year 2016/17, Loreto College Foxrock undertook the very enjoyable journey towards becoming a WellRead school. Our journey involved all of the school community, including staff, students, parents and the wider community within our area. Our school has revelled in the promotion of reading for pleasure both inside the school building and sharing that joy with parents and the wider community. It has been a year full of fun, ideas and a wonderfully enthusiastic response from everyone we invited to come on this journey with us.
In the summer of 2017, we heard the news that our school was successful in its bid, and we are pleased to announce that we are now a WellRead school.
A Reader Lives a Thousand Lives Before He Dies ....... George R R Martin