Resource Centre
Week 6
The year has clicked over into winter which flags how far we have come in 2020. This is my second week back after some time away and I’ve been delighted to see the resilience and acceptance of changes displayed by students. I have young ones asking when weaving will start again, telling me what they were doing all those weeks ago when we paused it. I am really impressed that their enthusiasm is totally matched with an acceptance that this is the way things are for a while.
We have all lived through an unexpected story in recent months. Each family has had its own story as has each person within the family. I found myself, that little things became big and important in my life and unexpected things could make me smile. We were driving away from our first 5-minute verandah meeting with our daughter and our youngest grandchild. We’d dropped off food and craft supplies and come away remembering their faces after ‘No hugs’. I’ll admit I felt a bit sad.
Then, as we drove back towards the freeway, Mr Croser said, “I wonder how my barber is going these days … he probably has few or no customers.”
I looked out for him then and there he was … not inside his shop but out on the footpath, sitting on a chair and playing a guitar. The unexpectedness made me smile, and I stopped feeling sorry for myself over the ‘No hugs’.
Do share and keep your family stories. Help your children to realise that stories are not just in books … they make up our lives. My mum told me about the flu pandemic of 1919 which happened when she was nine years old. Our students will carry their stories of this time through to their families in the future, too.
Keep reading, writing and talking to share your stories.
Jo Croser
Resource Centre Support Officer
Premier’s Reading Challenge
I’d like to begin our Premier’s Reading Challenge report for this week with an interesting story of what I’ve observed over the weeks of doing this year’s Challenge. The students have enjoyed searching and finding their names on our “Progress Thermometer”. I have noticed some of the younger students measuring their height against it!
The actual purpose of the chart is to map the progress of the entire team of readers and to mark each student’s completion of the challenge.
Thank you to all for the effort you are putting in to this year’s Challenge. As you can see in the photos, we are not far from the half way mark of beating our 2018 record.
At the time of writing up this report we now have 66 names on our chart. That is 66 completed forms handed in! This week I would like to say WELL DONE to the following students: Secondary: Shana. Primary: Isaac, Theodore, Lillian, Eli, Bella, Taylor, Aylah, Scarlett, Ingrid, Kimberly, Ava, Evan, Ashton, Keely, Sophie, Naomi & Luke.
For those students who are still working on reading their 12 books, with 13 more weeks until the end of this year’s challenge there is still plenty of time to hand up your completed forms.
Please remember to fill in your forms correctly. Occasionally people have missed their full name, date of birth or previous school. All this information is needed to enter details on the PRC site at the end of the challenge. Could students also please see that all books are signed off by a parent or teacher and have the author recorded, as this is also a requirement for the forms to be completed.
I hope you are all enjoying the books you have been reading this year and continue to, even when you’ve finished the Challenge. If you want to challenge yourself further … try picking out titles/genres’ you would not usually consider reading and give them a try. You may surprise yourself at what new books you enjoy!
Finally, remember – you are all part of a TEAM - striving to break our 2018 record, of 167 students completing the Challenge… so…
…KEEP READING!
Marie Fergusson
Resource Centre Support Officer & PRC Co-ordinator