24 October 2024
The chapter has closed on another record-breaking Premier’s Reading Challenge.
Students and staff from as far north as Karratha and Noonkanbah Station down to South Stirling in the Great Southern travelled to Parliament House to celebrate the end of the 2024 challenge.
Baynton West Primary School student prize winners Harley and Mia joined by deputy principal Ashley Smith.
More than 54,000 students read 860,000 books during this year’s challenge which ran from May to September.
This annual literacy engagement program encourages students to develop a love of books, reading, and literacy.
It is open to students across WA from Kindergarten to Year 10 who are required to read at least 12 books during the challenge.
Students dived into books in all formats including short stories, graphic novels, eBooks, talking books, audiobooks, and poems.
This year, more than 1,000 passionate school staff members stepped forward as Challenge Champions to promote the program in their school.
Dewey Dex, the Premier’s Reading Challenge mascot, travelled across the state with a fun literacy themed performance called The Dewey Experience to engage young readers.
End-of-challenge prizes were award to outstanding schools and students for their efforts during the challenge.
Among the student prize winners was brother and sister duo Harley (Year 1) and Mia Grey (Year 5) from Baynton West Primary School in Karratha.
The siblings each read more than 3,000 books during the challenge, defending their 2023 title for most books read.
Harley, who also found time to keep up playing soccer and basketball while taking part in the challenge, said school libraries were fantastic places for young students like himself to find new books.
“You can get them to go to the library and find any interesting books they want and then go home and read it,” he said.
Mia said she enjoys reading before school, after school and on the weekends.
“I read about 15 to 30 books a day. I read a chapter book every night,” she said.
“My favourite books are mystery and adventure books like Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton.
“What I enjoy most about reading is it helps me with vocabulary and writing stories.”
Baynton West Primary School deputy principal Ashley Smith said students at the school read more than 36,000 books during the challenge.
“My biggest tip from a school perspective is that it takes the whole school community to engage our students in reading,” she said.
“With the Premier’s Reading Challenge, we really put it to the forefront with all our families and made sure they were as a participant as the students were.
“Our senior students absolutely love digging into really rich novels, but at the same time it is refreshing for them to pick up those picture books that have such beautiful illustrations that really support those stories.
“In our junior years, we know they are the biggest fans of picture books, illustrations, but our classroom teachers will also expose them to chapter books by reading them aloud.”
Premier’s Reading Challenge 2024 winning schools were South Stirling Primary School, Southwell Primary School, Balcatta Primary School, Good Shepherd Catholic School, Baynton West Primary School, and Mandurah Baptist College.