Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) 2022

A huge congratulations to all the students of St. Joseph’s who completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge this year – WHAT AN AWESOME JOB!

Alora Attenborough, Janahli Bray, Kinsley Brown-Carter, Mabel Cashen, Cleo Cox, Hamish Faint, Kohen Fensbo, Brax Gaffney, Elaina Gross, Henri Hochstadt, Ryan Lee, Charli Lye, Thea O’Sullivan, James Pacificar, Layla Pollard, Chloe Refalo, Maggie Richards, Austin Searle, Jaibaaz Singh, Mia Skene, Sophia Stevens, Bethany Taylor, Mason Thomas. Gabby Tran, Jorge Verad, Andy Vo, Mason Walsh, Ellie Walsh, Luca Bamford, Aliyah Bathla, Zavier Beattie, Sophie Beveridge, Oscar Cortez, Annabelle Eldridge, Elijah Espiritu, Mason Handley, Azelle Hayes, Thomas Higgins, Jessica Ho, Vivian Ho, John Lennox, Charli McNeill, Nhu Y Nguyen, Sullivan Pryor, Henrick Roper, Neebhan Sherpa, Lucas Sneesby, Angus Steadman, Chloe Zhang, Averie Briggs, Nate Brims, Darcy Cashen, Connor Collyer, Matilda Craig, Jake Duggan, Lainey Edwards, Cameron Faint, Marleeka Gaffney, Jorja Gardner, Maeve Gordon, Drish Goyal, Siannah Hockley, Dalton Judd, Ruby Kane, Darcy Kennedy, Arvin Lin, Jackson Mallon, Logan Pascoe, Ari Pollard, Valeria Ramirez, Pippa Richards, Rahini Rikhi, Harrison Roberts, Violet Searle, Rocco Smith, Charlie Thompson, Lucas Tran, Nikita Verad, Grace Beveridge, Bailey Marshall, Vickie Pham, Sophia Quach, Sienna Ramirez and Archie Allan.

A special congratulations to Archie Allan who has completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge every year since Kindergarten (that’s 7 years in a row) – way to go Archie!

Overdue Books

The end of Term 3 is now upon us and it would be greatly appreciated if any overdue library books could be found and returned to the library as soon as possible. Returned library books may be placed in the pink box in the library. Overdue notices will be sent home on Wednesday for those students who still have outstanding loans – I encourage you to take the opportunity during the time of school holidays to locate any misplaced books. Unfortunately, the school will need to be compensated for any mislaid or damaged books. If you have already compensated the school for a book which is still showing up on your child’s overdue list could you please advise me directly via email mholley@arm.catholic.edu.au

Holiday Reading

SORA

With the school holidays just around the corner, I would like to take the opportunity to remind you that students can borrow ebooks and audiobooks from SORA, the Armidale Diocese digital library. SORA has an extensive collection of ebooks, audiobooks and magazines for students of all ages. If you happen to be travelling this holidays they are great to download and listen to in the car.

Getting started with Sora

Sora - get free ebooks and audiobooks from your school.

Step 1: Install the 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, then sign in.

The “setup” code is cenetau

Sign into your School – Select ACEN from the dropdown box.

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

Step 4: Close the book and go to the shelf to see all your books. 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 and more.

© 2020 OverDrive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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

SORA Recommended Reads

Each month, SORA promotes a great read for primary students. For the month of September it is The Amazing Spencer Gray by Deb Fitzpatrick.

Spencer Gray is twelve – finally old enough to join Dad in his glider. His mates are going to be so jealous! Going up is awesome – but when disaster strikes, Spencer will need to be nothing short of amazing.

WORLD BOOK ONLINE

St Joseph’s also has a subscription to World Book Online! This means that our students have access to this wonderful resource free of charge should they wish to access it during the school holidays. World Book Online may be accessed via the Oliver home page or by visiting the World Book website www.worldbookonline.com

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 and text to speech (with 10 voices). It includes educational games, activities, science experiments, a dictionary, an atlas, interactive maps, map outlines and a tool for comparing places or animals.

Student: expansive reference database and multimedia library. It includes games, behind the headlines, citation builder and 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.

Our User ID: joseph2340

Password: joseph2340

So Why Read?

I would like to share with you some interesting reading I came across on the Scholastic website:

"Did you know that just 10 minutes of reading a day will change your child’s life? While that may seem like a big statement to make, numerous studies have consistently shown that 10 minutes exposure to reading materials each day is all it takes to positively shape your child’s future. And this doesn’t just include complicated educational texts—any reading materials, be it comic books, novels, picture books, recipes, the television guide or the back of food packets, all count towards your child’s daily reading goal. Reading any of these materials for 10 minutes a day exposes your child to more than 600,000 words in one year—interestingly, that’s more than double the word exposure of a child who only reads for 5 minutes or less each day. The benefit of this word exposure is immense—research shows us that reading more improves a child’s performance in general knowledge, vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal fluency and spelling. But this goal of reading for 10 minutes each day isn’t only to improve your child’s academic success; the effects of this achievement are far more long-term than you may have anticipated.

As Dr. Seuss wisely penned,

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’

Reading for pleasure is a skill that will safely carry your child to success well into their adult life, broadening their horizons and opportunities. So how does reading benefit your child outside a classroom environment?

Reading improves a person’s empathy and emotional intelligence, allowing them to better understand the people and the world around them, which is especially important in today’s connected world. It fights against memory loss and has even been shown to slow the progress of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia—the brain is a muscle and regular exercise, such as reading each day, helps keep it healthy and stimulated.

As our lives continue to get busier, stress and the negative effects that it has on our physical and mental health can take its toll. However, research has shown that reading can be one of the fastest and most effective ways to reduce stress levels. Reading for just a few minutes can reduce stress levels by more than two thirds, allowing the body to relax as the mind is granted a much-needed distraction from everyday worries. Reading also improves a person’s concentration, verbal and analytical skills, decision-making and emotional processing.'

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