McLean Family Library

We like to think of our Junior School Library as a big treehouse full of books. It’s a Zen space, a calm eye in the centre of the busy Junior School. From its big windows, we can see the city in winter, but in the spring we look out onto a sea of green. Donated by the McLean Foundation, the library was recently refurbished with a generous grant from Plaid Tidings.

The library houses 14,000 volumes for children, including about 3,400 picture books and a large collection of fiction. We have an extensive and up-to-date collection of non-fiction developed to support student inquiry in our Primary Years Program. We subscribe to several online databases appropriate for younger learners and we have growing collections of DVDs and portable audio books. We house a small bank of desktop computers for student use and we use our wireless network through laptops on portable carts.

Primary classes have regular story time and borrow-a-book visits to promote a love of reading. We run two lunchtime book clubs and an enthusiastic reader’s advisory outreach with our older girls. The teacher-librarian collaborates with teaching staff to teach research skills, and suggest, supply and coordinate appropriate resources for our inquiry units.

The Junior School is staffed by a teacher-librarian and library technician, who promote the idea of fostering a love of reading in our young students. We have frequent author visits and the Book Fair, held each May, is a popular event for community members of all ages.

We also provide a place for study hall after school, where students in Grades 4 to 6 can find a supportive supervised place to do homework or read for pleasure.

The Junior School Library welcomes parent volunteers, who help us to provide a very complete service to our community.