Book Week at our Library

From Monday, 24th August to Friday, 28th August, we celebrated Book Week at the College, with our wonderful Library team organising a fantastic program of activities for students to enjoy throughout the week.

This year's Book Week theme, 'Symphony of Stories', celebrated the way stories, like music, can bring together different voices, ideas and experiences. Our Library team embraced the theme throughout the week, creating activities that encouraged students to experience stories in different ways – through words, images, sounds, creativity and even live music. Each recess and lunchtime brought something different, giving students plenty of opportunities to get involved.

Lunchtime activities included Table Trivia, where students could put their literary knowledge to the test and DIY Bookmarks, which gave students the opportunity to design and create their own personalised bookmarks. In keeping with the Symphony of Stories theme, we were also treated to live music from some of our very own talented PSC students, bringing music and storytelling together.

Our Library team also organised a range of fun recess challenges. In The Big Picture, students were shown a small section of a book cover and challenged to identify the book, while The Sound of a Story brought the theme to life through audio, with students listening to excerpts from audiobooks and trying to identify the stories. The Mini Collection provided another fun opportunity for students to guess how many tiny books were in the jar. It was wonderful to see students visiting the Library throughout the week and joining in the activities.

A huge thank you to Mrs Jamieson and Mr Scheepers for the time and effort and brilliantly creative ideas they put into bringing this year's theme to life and to all of our students who participated throughout the week.

Inspired by the Stories We Read

As part of this year’s Book Week celebrations, some of our Year 7 students had the opportunity to share their love of reading with the wider community.

This week, the Pakenham Gazette and Officer Star News are featuring Aalaina, Callahan and Laylah, who shared with us the books and authors that have inspired them, their favourite characters and what they enjoy most about getting lost in a great story.

We were delighted to share their responses with our local newspapers as part of their Book Week coverage and to see our students helping to celebrate the joy of reading across our wider community.

Aalaina – Year 7

Aalaina is currently reading To the Boy in Berlin and particularly enjoys the way the characters communicate through letters and the friendship that develops between them.

Her favourite author is Katie Kirby, creator of the Lottie Brooks series, and it is perhaps no surprise that Lottie is also the character Aalaina would most like to be.

“Her life is really interesting. She always thinks things are really bad, but it is always funny. It would be great to be her.”

For Aalaina, one of the best things about reading is being able to completely immerse herself in another world.

“It is really easy to concentrate when you go into the world of a book. When you find a good author, you will love their books. You don’t need anything else, just a good book.”

Callahan – Year 7

Callahan has recently made his way through the entire Harry Potter series and just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He particularly enjoys the characters and descriptive writing throughout the series.

While Andy Griffiths is his favourite author, if Callahan could step into the shoes of any book character, he would choose Harry Potter, particularly for the opportunity to be good at Quidditch!

His favourite character from the series is Sirius Black, who he describes as “a great godfather” who always wants to do his best for Harry.

For Callahan, reading is all about discovering what comes next: “I want to know what would happen and how it would happen.”

Laylah – Year 7

Laylah is currently immersed in the mystery Two Sides to Every Murder by her favourite author, Danielle Valentine.

She particularly enjoys the investigation into the identity of the Witch of Lost Lake and says that, if she could become one of the book’s characters, she would choose Reagan.

“Reagan is confident and they take time out to help people.”

Laylah is happy to read just about anywhere, whether at home or at school and says the thing she loves most about reading is the feeling of becoming completely absorbed in a story.

“I love when I get deep into the book and really feel like I am in the book.”

It was wonderful to see our students featured in the local media during Book Week and, most importantly, to hear them speak so enthusiastically about the stories that inspire them. Please pick up a copy of this week's Pakenham Gazette or Pakenham Officer Star News to read their interviews (on page 12 of the Pakenham Officer Star News).

Every week is Book Week at the PSC Library

Come along and ‘Adopt a Book’ today - we have some excellent books looking for a good home, absolutely free!

There is always plenty of activities going on in our Library! Check out the Weekly Library Timetable below to see what is on each day.

We have ‘Quiet Chill Vibes’ sessions every recess from Monday to Thursday for students looking for a calm and quieter space, along with some great lunchtime activities including our always popular arts and crafts sessions and our popular ‘Reel and Roll Club’ on ‘Fun Friday’.

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