- To showcase our pupils' work, from the youngest to the oldest.
- To share enthusiasms from pupils, teachers and others about books they are reading.
- To suggest interesting and helpful websites and links.
- To note interesting, thought-provoking and quirky work elsewhere on the Web.
- To write about and highlight the huge array of extracurricular activities at the College, such as drama, theatre visits and talks.
- To provide an opportunity for our pupils to write about these, and learn the skills of shaping writing in public.
- To build up an archive of the best creative writing produced by our pupils.
- To provide a section of department documents that can easily be accessed by pupils.
- To help parents, Old Columbans and friends to keep in touch with SCC, supplementing the official website.
- and in March 2009 we started podcasting - interviews, book discussions, revision programmes and more.
As time has gone by, we have discovered more and more uses for our blog. Our website recommendations are now very extensive - generally, ones that are useful for pupils. There are now 100s of examples of pupils' work. In our two and a half years, we have posted to the blog. Each year, over 30% of the children in the school contribute to it, whether through a poem, an essay, a book recommendation or in other ways.
In term-time, a big part of our focus is on pupils' work. In the holidays, there are more general literary posts.
In term-time, a big part of our focus is on pupils' work. In the holidays, there are more general literary posts.
So this is what the blog does now:
* It publishes as much pupil writing as possible - poems, stories, essays, book recommendations, reviews. And it provides a way to share this writing, for pupils to be inspired by each others' writing.
* It communicates our enthusiasm about all things literary and linguistic.
* It's mad keen on books - on novels, poetry, drama and more, and provides a way for staff and pupils to communicate their loves and discoveries.
* It reports on what's happening in our beautiful Library.
* It reports on all the drama that happens in school.
* It's a diary on anything to do with English; the blog format suits the rhythm of a school year perfectly.
* It provides podcasts for general interest (including interviews with interesting people) as well as revision podcasts for pupils - such as on Shakespeare plays and Leaving Cert poetry.
* It recommends interesting articles on the internet for pupils, staff and other visitors.
* It produces lots of links to valuable and useful websites - some for work, some for amusement. And it uses Twitter to back this up.
* It showcases the interests of the school's English teachers.
* It likes posting interesting visual images - photographs, 'Wordles', paintings.
* It provides material for biennial books (Going Places in 2008, Outside the Frame in 2010).
* It gives easy access for our pupils to the documents they have to have - reading lists, advice on essays and more. It's a kind of electronic filing cabinet.
* It publishes online our College magazines, like the Library's 'Submarine', and 'Second Bell'.
* It loves anything to do with Shakespeare, who's still very much at the heart of what we do.
* It publishes or links to our Poem of the Week, which we use in class, and put on noticeboards around the school.
* It's our Department's face to the world.
