Book Week

This year's Book Week had the theme Book An Adventure and an adventurous week was certainly had by all! In contrast to previous years, the week started rather than finished with a Book Costume Parade, and we were delighted by all the entries. The staff made a huge effort to come in themed groups; from the Prin team as Spy Kids to the English department (and bonus librarian) as the characters from Winnie the Pooh, the Senior department coming as the cast of Peter Pan, and Maths sticking to the classics as Harry Potter, there were amazing costumes apparent. And then the students arrived!

Costume  Parade winners:

Yr 7: Angelina Sicurella & Kiarah McCleary, who both dressed as Demon Slayers and carried copies of the book

Yr 8: Allycia Taranto who was dressed as The Mad Hatter

Yr 9: Isabell (Ace) Cannell, who also dressed as the Mad Hatter and had a teapot with a dormouse in it

Yr 10: NO WINNERS BECAUSE THE ENTRANTS WERE NOT FROM BOOKS

Yr 11: Emma McCleary, Cathy Spicer, Maddison Smith, & Addisyn Todd, who dressed as their textbooks (or, as careers derived from their textbooks)

Yr 12: Taylah Corkery, Shantae Joyce-Pohlman, & Clover Scandrett-Hancock, who were the Old Lady Who Swallowed the Fly (and the Fly, and I'm not sure if there was a Spider or a Cat)

Staff: The Yr 10 team, consisting of David Grinszpan, Bridey Oliver, Suzie Dubocanin, & Charlotte Parramore, who were Goldilocks and the Three Bears. 

Congratulations to everyone!

The Short Story competition had more entries than ever before, and it was SO HARD to pick winners. Huge thanks to Angie Fusinato and Wayne Spence for helping Kirsten Boxall adjudicate the Senior short story entries, and to Yr 12 students (and Book Club leaders) Luke Hannah and Abbie Berg who were the adjudicators, along with Kirsten Boxall, for the Junior short story entries. We look forward to reading more work by our authors!

Senior Short Story Winners: 

1st: Andrea Babbage, with The Lost Ones

2nd: Luke Hannah, with The Tech-Head

3rd: George Giannikopoulos, with Book An Adventure.

Junior Short Story Winners: 

1st: Shreya Hosamane Sumilkumar, with The Final Chapter

2nd: Jazmin Knight, with The Forgotten Island

3rd: Zoey Hipwell, with Not His Story to Tell

The two winners enjoyed a personal session with published author Naomi Woodward, following her very well-attended writing workshop. The attendees found her session very inspiring, and we are so glad she was once again able to attend. Copies of her books are available in the library, and the short stories will also be placed in the collection. Thank you to Mr Kuhn for overseeing the writing workshop.

Staff-Student Debate: 

It was a Glorious Victory for the staff in this hotly contested event! The topic was "A Book Is Better Than A Holiday" and the staff side were arguing the negative. Although the student side made several very good points, the staff achieved a narrow victory. Amusingly, both sides were using a photo of Dan Carlton being kissed by a giraffe to support their arguments! 

The Staff team consisted of Dan Carlton, Andy Long and Laura Spence, while the Student team had John Barton, Lior Isaacs and Lucy Basquill. Thank you very much, all of you!

Staff-Student Trivia: Another Glorious Victory for the staff! Woohoo! Ahem. Huge thanks to Andrew Hemsley for putting it together and overseeing it. 

Illustration Competition: Thanks to Benedicte Imberte for overseeing this! Students very much enjoyed working on their illustrations of the "Book An Adventure" theme; the winner of this event is still under adjudication and will be announced soon.

Folded Book Art: A new activity led by Kirsten Boxall, this was very popular and attendees were delighted with their new love heart folded book art. A few people have even kept going, making more hearts and a few flowers too. Thank you very much to Sana Shafi for overseeing this activity.

Other activities through the week included Book Clubs (thank you to Lewis White and Donna Fogarty for leading these), QuickWrite Competition (winner still under adjudication), Guess the Number of Words in A Jar (winner was Ryan Mills! Congratulations!) 

A huge thank you is due to the amazing organising team of Emma Sproule, Laura White, Kirsten Boxall, Madison Plunkett, and FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, Yr 12 students were heavily involved! We want this to be the start of a new student-led tradition, so thank you to pioneers Abbie Berg and Luke Hannah!