2024 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards

On Friday August 16th, the winners of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards were announced.

And the winners are…

The Book of the Year: 2024 Younger Readers

Winner: Scar Town ~ Tristan Bancks

Honour Book: Huda Was Here ~ H. Hayek

The Book of the Year: 2024 Early Childhood

Winner: Gymnastica Fantastica ~ Briony Stewart

Honour Book: Grace and Mr. Milligan ~ Pip Kruger

2024 Picture Book of the Year

Winner: Timeless ~ Kelly Canby

Honour Book: Paper-Flower Girl ~ Mateja Jager (Text: Margrete Lamond)

2024 The Eve Pownall Award

Winner: Country Town ~ Isolde Martyn & Robyn Ridgeway Hogan ill. Louise Hogan

Honour Book: Australia: Country of Colour ~ Jess Racklyeft

CBCA Award for 2024 New Illustrator

Winner: Hope is the Thing ~ Erica Wagner

To read more about these amazing books, you can click here.

Book Fair Thank You

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

I am completely blown away by the support shown for our annual Book Fair. My sincere and genuine “thanks” to all the families who took the time to peruse the books available for purchase and contribute to our school community by buying one or more books of the books on display. My appreciation also for the patience shown on the day of the Book Character Parade when we were extremely busy and our eftpos machine had a ‘hiccup’ (thank goodness for Mrs Westhorpe)!

Your generous support of our Book Fair enables our school to receive credit points with Scholastic, which we are then able to convert into resources for our school.

Buying a book - what an ideal way to celebrate the Magic of Reading!

Book Character Parade Thank You!

Book Character Parade Thank You!

A heartfelt “thank you” also to all the students, their families and friends and staff members who contributed in any way to the amazing costumes worn by the students at our Book Character Parade - your support of this Book Week activity was overwhelming! I understand the effort that goes into these costumes, and I truly appreciate your dedication.

A special “thank you” to the many parents, grandparents and special family friends who came along to lend their support. The weather was wonderful, the costumes were fabulous and we were able to share a beautiful liturgy and morning tea with family and friends - a very fitting way to conclude Book Week. If you haven’t already done so, check out the photos on our school Facebook page or in the photo gallery.

NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2024

The Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2023 has now closed and student reading logs are currently being validated. Huge congratulations to all those students who have completed the challenge this year, what an amazing effort - WELL DONE! If you haven’t already done so could you please make sure you have your reading log up to date and submitted so your entry can be validated.

Don’t forget that the books you read after the Premier’s Reading Challenge closes this year can count towards next year’s Premier’s Reading Challenge. So why not get an early start and begin your 2025 Premier's Reading Challenge journey now?

Reading at Home

Don't forget that your child has 24/7 access to reading material through SORA and World Book Online. Please note that your child will need their school login details to access SORA, if they are unsure of their login details please contact the school so we are able to provide them for you. Some recommendations for your perusal.

SORA

The students at St Joseph’s are able to access ebooks, audiobooks and magazines through SORA, the Armidale Diocese digital library. SORA has an extensive collection of ebooks, audiobooks and magazines for students of all ages.

Instructions for logging onto SORA are as follows:

Step 1: Install Sora app from Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or soraapp.com.

Step 2: When in Sora, click on I have a setup code - “setup” code is cenetau - then sign in.

Sign into your School – Select your school - ACEN

Step 3: Browse the tab and borrow a book. Your book will open so you can start reading right away.

Step 4: Close the book and go to see all your books (including assignments). From there, you can:

Select Open book or Open audiobook to read or listen to the book.
Select Options to renew or return the book, see your notes and highlights, and more.

© 2020 OverDrive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NB You will need to use your school username and password to access this.

WORLD BOOK ONLINE

Our school has a subscription to World Book Online! This means you have FREE access to this wonderful resource from home or on the go with any internet-connected device. World Book Online may be accessed via the Oliver home page or by visiting the World Book website www.worldbookonline.com

What is World Book Online?

Homework help
Read stories, articles, and current events
Complete activities and Webquests
Play educational games
Learn how to do research
Explore pictures and videos
Find reliable information for assignments and projects

World Book Online is a safe, trusted, 21st-century learning environment for students.

The World Book products our school has access to include:

Kids:

simple navigation
easy to read articles
translations
text to speech (with 10 voices)
educational games and activities
science experiments
a dictionary
an atlas
interactive maps
map outlines
a tool for comparing places or animals.

Student:

expansive reference database
multimedia library
games
behind the headlines
citation builder
research tools

Timelines:

over 650 timelines including Gold Rushes in Australia, Australian Prime Ministers, Cricket World Cup, Star Wars and Harry Potter. Edit or create your own timelines.

User ID: joseph2340

Password: joseph2340

Encourage Learning Anytime, Anywhere!

Photo Gallery

Grandparents Day