St. Mary’s Secondary School is proud to be recognised as a Wellread School, reflecting our ongoing commitment to fostering a lifelong love of reading among our students, staff and the wider school community.
The Wellread National Award, presented by the Oide) and the Library Service, recognises schools that actively promote reading for pleasure through a whole-school approach. It celebrates schools that create rich reading environments and encourage students to discover the enjoyment, imagination and lifelong benefits that reading can bring.
At St. Mary’s, reading is an important part of school life. Throughout the year, students have opportunities to engage in a wide variety of reading initiatives and activities, including:
- Whole-school reading events and celebrations
- Class-based reading initiatives
- Library visits and reading challenges
- Author visits and literacy activities
- Book recommendations and displays
- Community and parental involvement in promoting reading
Reading for pleasure has been shown to improve literacy, vocabulary, communication skills, creativity, wellbeing and academic achievement. Most importantly, it helps develop curious, confident and lifelong learners.
While we are honoured to have received the Wellread National Award, our work does not end there. We remain committed to providing opportunities for all students to experience the enjoyment of reading and to ensuring that reading continues to be a vibrant and valued part of life at St. Mary’s Secondary School.
We thank our students, staff, parents and the wider community for their continued support in making reading an integral part of our school culture.