Dear PMPS Families,

Book Week 2023 is fast approaching! This year, PMPS will be celebrating Book Week in Week 7, Monday 21st to Friday 25th of August. The theme this year is, “Read, Grow, Inspire”.

Book Week is the longest running, literacy initiative in Australia, that aims to celebrate and promote reading amongst children. In conjunction with this celebratory week, the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA), holds the annual CBCA Book of the Year Awards. Each year, these awards recognise and celebrate the contributions of Australian authors and illustrators across a number of literary categories. You can find information on the CBCA, Awards, and this year's nominated children's books here: https://cbca.org.au/

The following information will provide some insight on how students and teachers will celebrate:

Dress Up Day:

Book Week themed dress up day will take place on Friday the 25th of August.

Student Competition One:

Design a book front cover, inspired by the 2023 Book Week theme.
This is a school wide competition, inclusive to all year levels.

Student Competition Two:

100 word short story, inspired by the 2023 Book Week theme.
Students in Year 3 to 6 enter this by providing a hard copy and handing it to their teacher.

Junior School Parade:

Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students and teachers will participate in a Book Week Themed Costume Parade at 9:00am on Friday the 35th of August. This will take place in the Gym.
Junior school families are invited to view the parade. More information will be provided closer to the date.

Book Fair:

Our annual Book Fair in collaboration with Mary Martin Bookshop will continue this year, both online and in our schools Library.
Want to skip the crowds and earn 15% of proceeds for our school to purchase books for our Library? Pre order online by the 20th of August and select ‘Pick up at PMPS Book Fair’ at checkout. Start your book journey here: https://www.marymartinbooks.com.au/bookweekfair
Our onsite Book Fair will take place on Tuesday 22nd, Thursday 24th and Friday 25th of August between 3:30 to 4:00pm in the school Library.

Ice Bucket Challenge:

This year we are changing things up! The ice bucket challenge has become a tradition at PMPS, taking place on dress up day. This year, there will be a number of staff volunteers and we are asking that students and families vote on who gets dunked!!
During Book Week, we will ask students and families to place a gold coin donation in a jar, counting as a vote toward the staff member you want to see have icey cold water poured on them. During pick up and drop off time, you can find the voting station near the new junior soccer pitch. We look forward to everyone getting involved!
The three staff members with the most money in their jar after drop off on Friday, will be nominated to get ice poured on them at the end of the day.

Fundraising:

This year PMPS will be fundraising for a children's reading foundation called ROOP (Reading Out Of Poverty). This foundation is a non-profit organisation, located in Victoria, that provides early literacy support to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. All contributions received will be donated.

Students will take part in a range of Book Week related activities throughout the week! We look forward to continuing to share and develop a love for reading in our students and cannot wait to see the creative costumes they dress up in to conclude the celebrations.

I look forward to seeing everyone get into the book week spirit!

Physical Education

Steve Brewer & Janelle Sammut