As I commence Long Service Leave today, this will be my final Literacy Links segment for 2022. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year. In keeping with one of our Literacy mantras ‘Words Matter’, I pray that Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, bless and inspire us all to speak words of love, peace and gratitude in 2023. My hope for students over the remainder of the term and into the Christmas holiday period is that they take the time to sit with a good book and in doing so, encounter other ideas, other people and other situations which will expand their worldview as well as their understanding of self.

The importance of reading was evident at our Parent Library event this week when parents, carers and English staff gathered in the College library to talk about books. A wide range of fiction and nonfiction material purchased by the College, along with many pre-loved books supplied by the Mount Carmel community, found new homes on this evening. This Parent Library initiative is part of the Mount Carmel Home-School Literacy Partnership program – a program which invites and supports parent engagement in the education of their children. This rich collaboration between home and school is undoubtedly seeing positive and beneficial outcomes for students, parents, and teachers.

I will finish with my own recommendations for reading, for students as well as parents and staff, and once more remind us of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s message: ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world.

Ms Clare Murphy