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Library Sign

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Literacy initiatives whole school involvement: DEAR / word of the week for each subject / Oakdale books brought in/ Poetry Day Ireland / Yearbook
Staff all took part in DEAR throughout the school year; each year group, during random class periods/subjects.

Each subject gave a word of the week

Staff brought in books to use in Oakdale reading club

TY staff and students wrote and published the 2022/23 Colaiste Iosagain Yearbook

Poetry Day Ireland scavenger hunt ‘Message in a Bottle’.

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Sinéad Boland, a new member of the teaching staff in Colaiste Iosagain Portarlington had attended the literacy conference 'Unlocking the door to learning' on Saturday 18th April 2015 when the 'WellRead National Award' was officially launched in St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra. Upon commencing her employment in Colaiste Iosagain in October 2022 she attended an online webinar on WellRead. She then spoke with the SMT and applied for the WellRead award. A steering committee was established. This was to implement the WellRead school initiatives. Two students were on this committee. An initial meeting was held and throughout the year there were many informal meetings to hear the student voice. They reported back to the students council, made announcements over the school intercom regarding the variety of initiatives and they wrote articles for the school yearbook giving details of this journey. At the end of the year a review meeting was held. An outline of events for the school calendar was given to the Senior Management Team by the students on this committee.

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School Library: Grant received and a wide selection of books, including audio-books and graphic novels, purchased. Chairs, round tables, bookshelves and beanbags were purchased. A classroom was decorated and set up for the school library. This was open daily and supervised during lunchtime by teachers (a rota was used) and by JP11 students, 1st years English visited and were introduced to the available books/audiobooks available for reading.
“The new books we have in this room are fantastic. The graphic novels are great. They are funny. We use this room to play chess at break times too.”  David Ekundayo

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reading for pleasure

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https://www.colaisteiosagainport.ie/

Colaiste Iosagain, Portarlington uses a wide variety of digital media to communicate with teachers, students, parents and the wider community. This may be reading for information but often if is people reading about ongoing events and activities involving the students.
Twitter/Website https://twitter.com/ciosagain?lang=en
local newspapers/ radio / Laois Today social media
Parish newsletter announcements
https://www.ceist.ie/school/colaiste-iosagain-portarlington/

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Tweets by ciosagain

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2. The Good Old Days Ukrainian fundraiser

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2. The Good Old Days Ukrainian fundraiser

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Ukrainian night –  Colaiste Iosagain opened its doors on Saturday April 15th to the Ukrainain community and their friends.
Local community groups had products on display and for sale for this good cause. Knitting, bakery, painting for example.
There was a screening of Portarlington history; video footage from sports days in schools, photographs and articles from times past. https://twitter.com/ciosagain/status/1646951982014267395?s=20

This was to both raise badly needed funds and to connect the two communities.

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Oakdale Nursing Home book club

A group of students led by their teacher Brigid Gilligan visited the nearby nursing home to read and interact with the residents.
Teachers donated books, students placed these in plastic boxes and arranged them according to categories: sports, farming, history, machinery, romance and fiction.
A rota was created and weekly the students, accompanied by a teacher, were signed in as visitors. This was on the weekly calendar as a book club. The students read and chatted with the residents, enjoying the books and listening to the memories that were recalled through this activity. The nursing staff were please with this activity, the residents enjoyed it and were making requests for the types of books to bring next time. The students of Colaiste Iosagain gained a lot from this community activity.

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Haiku

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Clues outside in locations around the school; a letter on each clue and a poem to lead to next clue

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Clues outside in locations around the school; a letter on each clue and a poem to lead to next clue

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School Library: Grant received and a wide selection of books, including audio-books and graphic novels, purchased. Chairs, round tables, bookshelves and beanbags were purchased. A classroom was decorated and set up for the school library. This was open daily and supervised during lunchtime by teachers (a rota was used)

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A Literacy committee was established for the 2022/23 school year. They met regularly, formalising the ongoing literacy initiatives in Colaiste Iosagain. The minutes are attached and a lot of informal initiatives took place also. The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy

among Children and Young people 2011-2020 is being reviewed but the actions and targets involved included fostering an enjoyment of reading and to increase awareness of the importance of digital literacy.

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21st century teaching and learning communication formats: Parents download the compass app and look at the website & twitter account. These are read at their own discretion on school activities and events involving their child(ren)
https://www.colaisteiosagainport.ie/page/Compass-Parent-Booklet/23693/Index.html

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Secondary school in Portarlington, Co. Offaly, Ireland

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For Colaiste Iosagain Open night on Thursday 10th November 2022 – WellRead posters were on display around the school all year. For the Open Night a WellRead table was in the canteen area for parents to view and ask questions about reading in Colaiste Iosagain. Parents and prospective students were given a library tour – viewing the new furniture, books and computers for audio books available in room 55
https://www.colaisteiosagainport.ie/News/Open-Night-2022/220871/Index.html

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Secondary school in Portarlington, Co. Offaly, Ireland

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WellRead steering committee was established with parents, students and teachers as representatives. This committee was to drive and record the WellRead initiatives in Colaiste Iosagain for 2022/23.

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Reading Space

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Room 55

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Microsoft Forms - Easily create surveys, quizzes, and polls.

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Easily create surveys and polls to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize team events. Quickly create quizzes to measure student knowledge, evaluate class progress, and focus on subjects that need improvement. Microsoft Forms automatically provides charts to visualize your data as you collect responses in real time.

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Microsoft Forms - Easily create surveys, quizzes, and polls.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Easily create surveys and polls to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize team events. Quickly create quizzes to measure student knowledge, evaluate class progress, and focus on subjects that need improvement. Microsoft Forms automatically provides charts to visualize your data as you collect responses in real time.

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the whole student body took part in DEAR
Each subject was involved with coming up with a word of the week and the TY students organised and ran this.
TY students published the 2022/23 Yearbook
1st year English classes took part in a digital programme Immersive reader to improve their reading
Surveys were completed to collect data
Students read online while taking part in online learning during class such as Pobble / Baamboozle / Kahoot