this year because of the interruptions caused by the pandemic, but it is our intention to reintroduce it in 2021. Teacher Shelly Jackson has continued to be very busy in the numeracy support area. Having Shelly has strengthened our department considerably and it is reassuring to know we can offer this expertise in numeracy. While her main focus is on the Year 9 and Year 10 students, she has also supported those students in Years 11 and 12 for whom numeracy remains a challenge. Remote learning provided an opportunity to further develop the online aspects of the programme. New apps and programmes that facilitated visual learning were explored with great success. Google Meet and shared online workspaces were important as they allowed a range of manipulatives to still be used, helping students construct their own cognitive models for abstract mathematical ideas. We had a change of staff this year following the retirement of SAC Administrator Annie Smith. Annie has been replaced by Kate Barber, and she has stepped into Annie’s shoes seamlessly. This position is critical to the efficient running of our department. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my staff for their dedication and the care they show our students. We can be proud of the support we offer those with learning differences. As we farewell our Year 13 boys, and think about where many of them began, it is so encouraging to recognise their achievements and know they head out into the world having developed both the skills and confidence to succeed in their chosen pursuits. Lesley Anderson-McKenna HoD Learning Centre & ESOL LIBRARY We are never sure what life will throw at us and that is certainly an understatement this year. It felt as if we had no sooner started the school year then we were home again, confined to our bubbles, looking for
ways to entertain ourselves over an unspecified period of time. I spent the last Monday before lockdown – 23 March – issuing textbook after textbook so that students had content and curriculum in a non-digital format. Just in case. I popped into the library on Tuesday 24 March – roughly 36 hours before the lockdown was to commence – and was besieged by teachers, all eager to take armfuls of books home to read. In the space of 24 hours several things had become apparent: 1. Everyone would need to occupy their time – mostly indoors.
the books upwards and out the door. Some of these books were from the 50s and 60s. I valued their age – but, sadly, many were in a very poor state.
The library was once again frequented by the History
department with boys researching the assassination of John F Kennedy, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the Springbok Tour and – in Year 13 – their own choice of subject. History students come for both the books and the digital databases the library supplies. (They also come for my help in guiding them to just the right article.) The English department also used the resources of the library, for research and for reading challenges. And then there were all the classes that come right across the curriculum for lessons on referencing, paraphrasing and plagiarism. Not the most exciting subjects, but essential tools in preparation for both NCEA examinations and eventually tertiary education. Personalisation is always at the heart of a library's core business, and 2020 saw an unprecedented number of students after one-on- one help. Sometimes this was just for help in choosing a novel to read. Mostly, it was to help in navigating the explosion of information that is available. It is always a pleasure to provide “just in time” help. I am taking 2021 off to pursue some personal interests and take a breather. Now, then, is a good time to review, briefly, the last nine years during which I have steered the College library. In that time, I have genrefied the fiction section – making it easier for boys to find novels they want to read. I have weeded the non-fiction section and, seriously, I do not think it has been given much attention in over 20 years. At the same time, I manipulated the Dewey Decimal System to suit the curriculum at College. Each book was removed and evaluated for value to learning. I created a website, introduced eBooks and audiobooks, I implemented a whole school approach to referencing. If I go back
2. Bookshops would be shut.
3. Teachers would finally have time to read. Books, once again, had become one of the most valuable things to own. Time at home gave everyone a chance to read them. Getting the books back was not so easy. And so, to library matters … 460 books have been purchased this year, keeping the shelves stocked with current titles. Most of them were non-fiction, supporting the curriculum and growing areas such as gender diversity, the Black Lives Matter movement, and contemporary insights into the Waitangi Treaty and equality. We were joined by Katie Latham for two days a week to help with key library duties such as cataloguing and shelving. She undertook the major task of overhauling the English department book room. This has been overdue since 2011 when many of the English texts went missing after the earthquakes. Another long overdue task was the weeding and sorting of what is referred to as “stack”. These are essentially old library books which are deemed too important to let go but are no longer read. I had avoided the issue of hundreds of books in the basement … however, I applied the criteria either written by a New Zealander or about New Zealand, which enabled us to move a lot of
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