FEATURE | LUMEN
7 space , bright colours , welcoming atmosphere , and the many attractive new books waiting to be read . New Year 5 students too are excited to find the wealth of resources available .
The Beurel offers something age-appropriate for everyone – from popular fiction for leisure readers , to challenging books for serious readers , informative non-fiction texts for researchers and curious minds , even comics and periodicals for the grazer-readers . The latest exciting additions to the library resources include subscription to New York Times and the related Learning Network which support current affairs reading and there are now alternative reading options in the form of ebooks and audiobooks on ePlatform .
The Library team works closely with the teachers to support all Teaching and Learning programmes in SJI . This is evident by the number of Library-Faculty collaborations that have been growing from strength to strength over the past few years . The Genre Reading List with its carefully selected , annotated titles supports the English Reading programme by the Foundation Programme Academy for Year 1 and 2 Josephians , where a base collection was established for ‘ Reading Circles ’ to help readers with different needs and interests to engage with a variety of written texts . The various Reading
Challenges such as the ‘ Read A Classic Challenge ’ or ‘ Read A Myth Challenge ’ encourage students to read well beyond the syllabus , reflect on their reading and share personal responses with the rest of the school . The research modules developed by Teacher-Librarian Mrs Boey Wah Fong , in collaboration with teachers include The Junior Researchers ’ Programme , Project Galileo and the Extended Essay workshops . The unique collection of thought-provoking picture books has been used by teachers in Art , Academic Development Modules and Josephian Formation Journey , to achieve a variety of learning outcomes .
To promote Singapore literature and a passion for reading , a few major events are organised at the Beurel every year . These include the Singa-Lit Festival , poetry reading and writing through the Poetry Potpourri , as well as reading and writing of various genres through Book Week . The highlights at these events include Author Talks , Readathons , Movie screenings , Creative Writing competitions , and various competitions which test one ’ s literature knowledge .
A special feature of the Library is that all bookshelves are on castors , making it possible to
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Come to the library . There ’ s a lot that you cannot find on the Internet that ’ s here . And that it is in better colour because it is not the screen that is staring at you ... It ’ s lush and I think that you will find that there are lots of beautiful voices that will speak to you through these books .
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- Mr . Michael Ee , Art teacher and alumnus
Facing page ( top ): The Eye - stained glass window in Beurel Facing page ( inset ): Rev Fr Jean Marie Beurel , MEP
Facing page ( bottom right ): Singa-Lit Festival 2019 - Supporting local playwrights
This page ( top left ): Book Week 2019 This page ( bottom left ): The Beurel
This page ( centre right ): Picture Book Talk by Mrs Boey at Book Week 2019