The students really look forward to this four-month journey and are excited to read and log in their books. They enjoy the wonderful incentive of weekly prizes, encouraging others to register, and recommending their favourite books to their peers. The Challenge has had a positive impact on our school with students from all diverse cultures and backgrounds from Kindy to Year 6 participating in this challenge. The students have a sense of belonging and reading is now fun, and everyone is reading, no matter what level and capacity.

There was an early prize draw in May for a school that had the most students registered for its size category, with Good Shepherd coming out on top and winning the Dewey Experience, a musical performance mini show.

If you are not sure who DEWEY is, he is the Premier’s Reading Challenge Buddy, named after the Dewey Decimal system.

Good Shepherd students were lucky enough to get to see DEWEY and friends performing live on stage on their Book Week Dress Up Day.

At the end of the performance students presented DEWEY with a handmade thank you card which contained collated responses from Kindy to Year 6 on why they love DEWEY with students saying:

“DEWEY makes us smile”

“He loves reading books”

“Kind and very nice”

“Fluffy, cuddly and soft”

“His fur is calming”

“Cute, smart and exciting”

“DEWEY is good with kids”

DEWEY was also presented with a crocheted miniature DEWEY from one of the students.

At the end of the Book Week Dress-up Day, students closed the celebrations by holding handcrafted and designed letters of the Book Week theme “Reading Is Magic”.

What an amazing end to the Book Week Celebrations.