The School Library

The Follow Up to GEW18 was organised in the school library of St Margaret College Secondary School Verdala on Friday 11 January 2019.

Three schools participated this year namely St Margaret College Secondary School Verdala, Cospicua, St Clare College Secondary School, Pembroke and Gozo College San Lawrenz Primary. The Follow Up is an opportunity for student representatives of the participating school to speak in front of an audience about the work they carried out at school level during the actual global education week organised during the 3rd week of November 2018. The theme this year was ‘The World is changing, what about us?’.

The Year 3 students of Gozo College San Lawrenz Primary did a clean up in the area of the Inland Sea at Dwejra and then used the waste collected to design creative charts to raise awareness. The Year 5 students of the same school showed how cigarette butts, straws and bottle caps are harming the sea creatures.

Various groups of students from St Margaret College Secondary School, Verdala, Cospicua participated. In relation to Religion and Science the Verdala Queen’s Young Leaders commemorated ‘Mental Health Awareness Day’ while other students in collaboration with Missio Malta focused on poverty in Uganda and proposed practical solutions in aid of Ugandan children. The third group of students reflected on Christmas time as an opportunity for unity and peace between the three monotheistic religions that is between Christians, Muslims and Jews.

The geography students of St Margaret College interviewed people at Marsaxlokk on the issue of waste in Malta. Other geography students researched on the damage being done by plastic waste in our oceans and what we can all do to help the natural ecosystems. Another presentation focused on the changes that are occurring in the world and whether these are causing positive or negative effects.
The social studies students focused on the internet and how it is changed our lives.

Then it was the turn of the students of social studies at St Clare College to give their presentations. They focused on the use of facebook and the internet, plastics in the seas and the need to stop bullying through comments on social media.

The representatives of KOPIN then organised an interactive activity to highlight the use of oil in our everyday activities and in the production of items that we commonly use.

The Hon. Dr Clifton Grima Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Sport and Voluntary Organisations presented certificates to the participating students and link teachers.

Rita DeBattista
National co-ordinator for GEW

Our Mission Statement

“To ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information”

The School Library at St Margaret College, Secondary School, Verdala is under the responsibility of Ms Marlene Gatt and Mr Mario Bonnici. The Library is open daily for the service of students, according to a fixed schedule. Everyday, excluding Wednesdays, the library is open during the midday break. On most Mondays librarians attend in-service meetings at the Schools Library Service at St Julians, so the School Library is closed on such occasions.

Students may visit the library to borrow books, carry out research work for projects, make use of our computers with internet access. As from the current scholastic year, students may also make use of the OPAC (Oliver) from the library computers, or else from home. Oliver is a web-based library and information management solution used at thousands of schools and consortia across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, delivering secure, online access to all information and learning resources.

Our school library is there to:

• Assist the development of learning programs that will provide our students with the skills necessary to succeed in a constantly changing social and economic environment
• Provide quality fiction to develop and uphold in students the inclination and enjoyment of reading for pleasure and to enrich students’ intellectual, aesthetic, cultural and emotional growth
• Provide for differences in learning and teaching styles through the provision of and equality of access to, a wide range of materials, fiction and non-fiction, print, audio, video and digital
• Provide teachers with access to relevant curriculum information and professional development materials within and outside the school; and opportunities to cooperatively plan, implement and evaluate learning programs which integrate information resources and technologies

Our library has a vast collection of a wide variety of books, including Junior Fiction, Intermediate Fiction, Maltese Junior Fiction, Maltese Intermediate Fiction, Information Books, Melitensia, Reference books, Teachers’ Resources, the Special Collection Scheme, as well as collection of books which may be used by Foundation classes.

A number of DVDs is also available for the use of students and teachers. Students may borrow up to 3 books at a time for a period of three weeks, while teachers may borrow up to six books. Books need to be properly looked after and returned on the due date. Students and Teachers can also make use of the Internet and have access to the Online Public Access catalogue by using the school library workstations.

Rules and Regulations:

• Strict discipline is to be observed
• Any student can borrow up to three books at a time
• Teachers can borrow up to six books
• Loan period is three weeks
• School library books can be issued and returned only during library period
• No eating and drinking are allowed
• School library books should be properly looked after and deposited on the due date
• Anyone caught marking, underlining, cutting or damaging books will be liable to pay for the replacement of the book
• Reference books, Journals and Melitensia Reference are to be read in the school library only. These books are not meant for home use
• A Teacher-Librarian may call a book at any time in case of urgency
• Clean up after yourself. Put textbooks back on the proper shelf, tuck in chairs and throw away your garbage. other people need those books, too, and a neat place to work
• No Cell Phones in the school library