Library 

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge:

Go Team! In the spirit of the Olympic Games, we have some serious medal contenders! And, I have some medals from the Premiers’ Challenge to award once we get to the end of this year’s event.

So, this week’s update: I have verified all books listed on the website as of yesterday morning. I successfully added a set of books to all students in Year 1 last week and was delighted to find that the issues experienced last year have been fixed by the site developers. This week’s outstanding addition was 34 new books to verify for Violet Shrive.  As I have for some other students, I have raised the challenge total for Violet to 55 Challenge books and 50 choice – she is close to those numbers now. 

There are 44 days left. I will ensure that the challenges I have re-set are met before the due date (or I will go back to the number the student has read and adjust backwards). 

Reading is a great way to develop a range of skills but one of the most valuable is the ability to empathise in relation to very different experiences that people (and in many books, animals) face in both the real and imaginary worlds. Imagination is another aspect worth encouraging.

Thanks to those parents who are supporting their children to meet the challenge, and to those who have not engaged with the challenge but who continue to read with, to and in front of their children!

Online resources:

Increasingly we are providing access to materials that support teaching and learning that are virtual. The majority of these are password protected and listed on the SIMON home page under Junior Campus Links or Library for Senior School students. A new LearnPath explaining the resources from Gale is about to be launched in Oliver for Senior Campus students and teachers to explore. 

Please ask if your children need information and are not sure where to find it! We have solutions to most topics covered.

Whatever else you do this week, keep on reading!

Margaret Simkin

Head of Library