Dear Parents/Guardians,

With extended school holidays just ahead, we’d like to remind you how important reading is for your child. The extra free time will provide ample opportunity for students to do some sustained reading. Some students complain that books are boring, but the book doesn’t really stand a chance of keeping their interest when it is only picked up to be read a couple of times a week in very short bursts. Reading is like any other skill, with more practice the better you become and reading for sustained periods aids in building concentration spans. Some children need no encouragement to read but others need help with setting aside time. Role modelling is great (so maybe set aside some time to read together) and incentives can also work. Maybe you could introduce the idea that they need to do some reading before they can have some screen time.

Students can access our eBooks and e-Audiobook collection from home (see instructions below). Alternatively, your local library will have plenty of age-appropriate books available.

2025 was a great year for readers!

We had 41 students successfully complete the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. The top three students who finished the most books were; Matina Kamsonny of 7A (Silver House) with 53 books, Avery Harper of 7P with 48 books, and Arjun Gurtu of 7M with 47 books.

The top three students who read the most graphic novels were; Aiden Satchell of 10M with 82 loans, Thomas Franchina of 7M with 72 loans, and Dante Poke of 9E with 50 loans.

The top four students who read the most fiction books were; Parneet Kaur of 9R with 46 books, Natalie Johnson of 7A (Silver House) with 45 loans, Isabella Bingham of 7A (Silver House) with 43 loans, and Sid Prabhu of 7A (Silver House) with 42 loans.

We recognised all of these students with a special certificate and a caf voucher at the last whole school assembly.

The Regular Reader Raffle prize draw for Term 4 was held in Week 8. First prize ($12 in caf vouchers) went to Ella Boyce (9S), second prize ($6 in caf vouchers) went to Aryana Patel (7A), and third prize ($3 caf voucher) was won by Mahith Gogari (8A).

Congratulations again to the team from 8A (Gold House) who took out 1st place in the Year 8 Readers’ Cup competition. The top three-scoring teams were treated to a pizza lunch last week.

(8A winning team: Elliott Savage, Ben Fuller, and Mahith Gogari)

Students can access our vast eBooks and eAudiobooks collection from home via the LibGuides homepage by using this link: https://libguides.bhs.vic.edu.au/home. Look for the icon below, and on the right:

There is also an app available to download to your phone or tablet/iPad so that you can read or listen to books wherever you are.

You can borrow eBooks and eAudiobooks for up to 2 weeks. Click on “Save for later” if you’re not ready to borrow the item yet – this will save them to your “Saved Titles List”. eBooks also contain features that make them dyslexic-friendly – you can change the text font, text spacing, and background colour.

Many of the school texts are available on the ePlatform. Of course these don’t take the place of print books, which still need to be purchased.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask a library staff member!

(The ePlatform dashboard)

Book of the Week

Project Hail Mary

By Andy Weir

Science teacher Ryland Grace is charged with saving the Earth – if only he can remember how and why! Grace wakes from a coma aboard a spacecraft many light years from home with only vague memories of who he is and where he is going.

As he arrives at his destination, Grace slowly begins to remember the events leading to the launch of the Hail Mary – the spaceship he is on – and the identities of his two deceased crewmates. He realises that he must try to come up with a solution to save Earth all on his own, while also facing the prospect of never returning, as the Hail Mary doesn’t have enough fuel for the journey home.

Project Hail Mary is a thoroughly engrossing story that took me to places I never expected, and I didn’t want it to end! This book may be a challenge due to the technical aspects, but the author does a good job at explaining things simply – I’m not very good at maths and science, but I understood what was going on and really enjoyed the story, so there’s no reason you can’t enjoy it too!

The movie based on this novel comes out in March 2026, so if you’re interested, I highly recommend you read the book first!

For older readers.

Ms Winfield

We wish the students a very happy (and safe) holidays!

See you in the new year!

Belmont High School Newsletter

No. 20

Issue 20 · 18 Dec 2025

In this issue