SLANSW Professional Learning Summit - Change the Narrative

Workshop Presenter – Friday 21^stMarch 2025

Gail Erskine – CBCA

The SUN Project - CBCA Shadow Judging - illuminating children's literature

CBCA knows the importance of reading; it grows empathy, emotional intelligence, connections to others, critical and creative thinking, and knowledge acquisition. To build a strong reading culture we must provide young Australians with opportunities to be engaged, critical and creative readers. Participants will engage with quality texts using the CBCA Book of the Year Awards judging criteria.

Presenter Bio

Gail is a former primary school teacher, teacher-librarian, mentor to practising teachers and a university tutor in Children’s Literature. She is passionate about the rights of all children to access quality literature, be inspired by authors and illustrators and be informed by qualified teacher-librarians. She is convinced of the transformative power of children’s books and the importance of connecting kids and books. Building lifelong readers is her passion. Gail has been a member of the CBCA NSW Branch since 1991 and is the 2022-23 Lady Cutler Award recipient.

Registrations open at https://www.slansw.net.au/events

SLANSW Professional Learning Summit - Change the Narrative

Workshop Presenter – Friday 21^stMarch 2025

Paul Scully – City of Parramatta Libraries

Evolving role of public libraries

Paul will look at the evolving role of public libraries with a focus on the creative library.

Presenter Bio

Paul joined the City of Parramatta Council in 2021 as the Stream Lead - Library – 5 Parramatta Square. Paul brings a wealth of experience to Council, having been a professional librarian for more years than he would like to say. Prior to his current role Paul was the Library Change Manager at Burwood Council. Prior to that, Paul managed libraries at Liverpool and at Fairfield. Prior to these roles Paul was a consultant with Public Library Services at the State Library. In this role he provided advice to councils on all aspects of the management of public libraries. A highlight of this role was co-project managing the roll-out of NSW.net to NSW public libraries. Paul has also served on the Library Council’s Public Libraries Consultative Committee both as a State Library representative and as a public library representative. A highlight of his career was when Fairfield City Council won a Local Government Excellence Award in 2019 in the Service Delivery Category for the Open Libraries Program.

Registrations open at https://www.slansw.net.au/events

SLANSW Professional Learning Summit - Change the Narrative

Workshop Presenter – Friday 21^stMarch 2025

Anna Burkey – Reading Australia

Creating Reading Communities

In this session, Anna will be presenting on reading research, the important elements to building a reading culture and how we reach infrequent and lapsed readers.

Presenter Bio

Anna Burkey has a passion for storytelling, reading and learning. Hailing from Scotland, where she was on the founding team of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature, she currently lives in Melbourne on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung lands. After several years in leadership roles with State Library Victoria, establishing StartSpace and leading the Centre for Youth Literature, Anna is working with partners across the country to grow Australia Reads - a national not-for-profit collaboration aimed at increasing reading rates. Australia Reads is on a mission to get more people reading more books, more often.

Registrations open at https://www.slansw.net.au/events

SLANSW Professional Learning Summit - Change the Narrative

Workshop Presenter – Friday 21^stMarch 2025

Michelle Bradley – PETAA

Using diverse texts meaningfully

This session will explore why diverse books are so important for use in schools; examples of diverse books; auditing library collections for diverse books; how to use diverse books in a meaningful way that is not tokenistic.

Presenter Bio

Michelle has had a varied career in education, teaching and leading, for over 30 years. She has been an Early Childhood and Primary teacher, a Teacher of the Deaf and a Teacher Librarian. She has most recently been an Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction. Michelle has taught in many areas of NSW and Victoria. She is passionate about all aspects of English and is a renowned book nerd. She is a perpetual student herself and loves the fact that she can keep learning through her work. Michelle loves being a part of supporting teachers and leaders through the many and varied professional learning opportunities offered by PETAA.

Registrations open at https://www.slansw.net.au/events

SLANSW members and school library colleagues may be interested in  resources from All Together Now, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting racial equity in Australia. Their Agent C program nationwide is now available for free to Year 7 and 8 students until the end of this year.

What is Agent C?

Agent C is a free workshop program designed to address the growing issue of online fake news and conspiracy theories, particularly on hateful and divisive narratives. The program empowers students with the skills and knowledge to challenge harmful conspiracy theories and fake news, while fostering critical thinking and encouraging stimulating conversations among peers.

Why is this important?

Research shows that exposure to online fake news and disinformation is happening at increasingly younger ages, making it more important than ever to equip students with the skills they need to navigate the digital landscape safely and critically.

What’s new?

Thanks to generous funding from Deutsche Bank, we've tailored our program specifically for students aged 12-14, addressing their unique needs and vulnerabilities. The newly updated 2-hour Agent C program is now available for Year 7 and 8 students across Australia, completely free of charge until the end of 2024!

SLANSW is excited to be partnering with a range of sponsors at the ConnecTech Summit that are committed to advancing digital literacy and information technology in education, as well as supporting our school library spaces. It's not too late to register to attend the ConnecTech Summit - it's an event that promises to inspire and innovate!

Details of the full summit program are available here.

To register please visit: Professional Learning Summit: (7 September 2024)

SLANSW members and other members of our wider professional community are invited to participate in the ABC Education Survey The ABC is looking for suggestions of digital resources that would help with your teaching practice.

SLANSW members and school library colleagues may be interested in the resources available from the eSafety Commissioner to support the development of a whole school approach to cyberbullying. These resources have been developed  in collaboration with NSW Education Sectors and representatives from eSafety’s National Online Safety Education Council. 

SLANSW members and other members of our wider professional community have the opportunity to  assist the Australian Children's Laureate Foundation in enhancing the Laureate Initiative by completing the brief community engagement survey linked below. Your unique insights will help ACLF identify successful aspects and growth opportunities across the industry, including educators, librarians, booksellers, and publishers. 

https://forms.gle/e9bq8ioaUM5iuewv6

Seven concurrent workshops will be offered by a variety of experienced educational professionals:

Marika Simon, a Lecturer in the School of Information and Communication Studies at CSU will bring a session on Using GenAI in the Primary School Library: Ideas, demonstration and exploration. 

Dr Andrew Ross and Ms Karinne Campbell from the University of Canberra & Dickson College, ACT will present on Information Literacy for Civics Education: The Role of Teacher Librarians. 

Bryce Corbett is the Director of Squiz Kids Kids - Australia's number one daily news podcast for primary school kids. His presentation will focus on Newshounds: a free media literacy resource for primary school kids.

Zeina Chalich (Britannica Education) is a distinguished educational leader presenting on Media Literacy Skills for an AI-Driven World.

Anthony Shaw (SCIS Product Manager) and Mike Botham (SCIS Librarian) will be bringing a workshop on Navigating the Digital Maze: Quality Curated Online Resources for School Libraries.

Louise Mashiah– Primary School TL at Baulkham Hills Public School. Her session is titled Microsoft Learning Accelerators: Using AI to improve learning outcomes. 

Amanda Johnstone (Head of Library and Information Services) and Rachele Rugiero  (Head of Gifted Education) – at Kincoppal –Rose Bay School of the Sacred Heart. Their session is on Academic Integrity, Critical Thinking and AI...the journey continues. 

Session outlines for each workshop on offer is accessible here

To register visit: Professional Learning Summit: (7 September 2024)