Library News
Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge
The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and St Joseph’s College is excited to be taking part!
Our Year 7 and 8 students have been registered for the Challenge through Reading Room classes and Year 9 students provided registration logins through English classes. For the first time all Reading Room teachers have been registered as Learning Coordinators for the Challenge, allowing them to approve completed books, add recommendations to student reading lists and generally have the opportunity to become more involved in supporting student involvement in the Challenge.
Our Years 7-9 students are challenged to read 15 books by 5 September 2025, however the Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 and aims to help young readers develop a lifelong love of reading. It is not a competition; it is a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 5 September 2025.
Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers.
All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.
This year, the Challenge is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the theme ‘20 years of words and wonder’ and a year of special activities. For details, follow the Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge Facebook
Since it began in 2005, more than 4.5 million young readers have taken part and together read more than 63 million books.
To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the Challenge booklist for individual year levels and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge or email our school’s Challenge Coordinator at clasmith@sje.vic.edu.au
Literacy information for families
Families play a key role in developing a child’s language and literacy skills from birth. While we are a senior school, we invite all our families to help all their children read or experience books to build a lifelong love of reading.
Follow these useful links from the Victorian Government website to find out more:
- How to build your child's literacy skills from birth to Grade 2
- How to build your child's literacy skills from Grades 3 to 6.
CBCA Book Awards
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) have announced both the:
Notable books https://cbca.org.au/2025-notables/ and Shortlisted Books https://cbca.org.au/2025-shortlist/ for the 2025 CBCA book awards.
Winners will be announced 15 August, prior to the start of the 2025 Book Week 16-23 August.
2025 Children’s Book Week
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) annual Children’s Book Week celebrates its 80th year of Children’s Book Week in 2025. This year Children’s Book Week will be held 16-23 August and will be marked by a week of celebrations on Kildare Campus. The 2025 theme is “Book an Adventure!”. For more information go to https://cbca.org.au/childrens-book-week/
The Library Team