Croom NS were delighted to be a recipient of Children’s Books Ireland Book Gifting Awards for Schools. Croom NS were one of a lucky fifteen schools nationwide to receive an award. With over 480 applications received to Children’s Books Ireland, these awards are hotly contested.
Croom NS received the Robert Dunbar Memorial Award. The main purpose of the award is to foster a love of reading for pleasure for both students and staff and encourage a culture of reading throughout the school community.
The award has been a fantastic addition to Croom NS. The shelves of the corridors are now adorned with nearly 200 new titles, all of which are fantastic top of the range children’s literature.
Alongside the new library of books, the award also requires the winning schools to complete some ‘Every Child a Reader’ tasks.
Padraig Wallace, Vice Principal of Croom National School says: “Our windows are decorated with a Monster Doodle drawing creation which showcases the artistic talents of each of our children in the school. Bunting with pictures of favourite titles or characters from books hangs proudly around our new library of books”.
“Another hugely exciting and important part of the award is getting a ‘Champion of Reading’ to visit the school. We have been so lucky in Croom NS to have had Gráinne O’ Brien” Gráinne O’Brien, author of A Limerick Fairytale, was the “Champion of Reading” assigned to Croom NS and delivered workshops from Junior Infants to 2nd Class. Gráinne inspired the children with her infectious energy and enthusiasm for imaginative and creative writing.
At the end of these workshops Croom NS students now have have a trilogy of Croom Fairytales!
Gráinne O’Brien says “The Croom Fairytales are just fantastic stories, filled with imagination and based on various locations in Croom, I will be giving copies – both hardback and digital – to have in the school library, but also to share with parents”.
On Friday May 17th our school launched the new library of books. Gráinne presented prizes to the winning and runner up placed children from an in-house colouring competition which took place from Junior Infants to 2nd class. The colouring competition used a selection of illustrated scenes from A Limerick Fairytale and the children really invested a great deal of care, attention and detail to their colouring.
Attending the launch, Trina O’Dea, Local Election Candidate and BoM member said: “This is a wonderful initiative to have at Croom NS – the gift of imaginative and creative reading and writing is a wonderful source of enjoyment for all children – the libraries for both Junior and Senior students are exceptionally stocked and cover all genres. I was especially pleased to see the energy and pride among both students and teachers for this initiative and want to congratulate all involved. Who knows the next booker prize winner could very likely come from Croom NS”.
Padraig Wallace wants to “Thank sincerely Children’s Books Ireland for this most amazing Book Gifting Award. It truly has been a fantastic experience. We look forward to completing our surveys, the last of our tasks, and our newly established Reading Committee will then have the opportunity to choose yet more titles and books as part of the award! We can’t wait to see what new titles are coming our way next time”.