Making Room to Read

Our Junior students in particular had a strong literary focus this week with Bookfair, and for our very youngest, Book Character Day. This week as part of CBCA Book Week, we have been encouraging our students and staff to ensure that they make room to read and enjoy the benefits that come from this.

Reading is something we can so easily take for granted and yet there are still nearly 800 million people that are illiterate and two thirds of these are women and girls. Room to Read is a charity that is passionate about doing something to change this, through focusing on literacy education in primary school in developing countries and on girls’ education in the secondary school years. Research shows that when people can read they are safer, healthier and more self-sufficient. We believe that this makes reading essentially a basic human right. It’s why we’re proud to support the Room to Read charity for the third year through the sales commission of our annual Bookfair.

This week has seen the Knowledge and Information Precinct transformed with books available for all ages of our students from Pre-Prep all the way through to our senior students. We had a great range of books this year aimed at 12+ readers and these were very popular. Some dazzled with their covers and others with intriguing titles.

Picture books and novels for our younger readers made a strong showing this year with a great selection. Some of our favourites authors had brand new books available from the Bookfair, including the latest in the Treehouse series. Aaron Blabey and David Walliam’s books, including The Worst Children in the World 2, were among many of the popular titles. There was a range of non-fiction titles from popular Minecraft titles to Science experiments and fascinating facts.

Pre-Prep to Year 2 students enjoyed the fun of Book Character Day on Wednesday and the wide range of characters represented was amazing to see. It was a great opportunity to be reminded of the diversity of different characters that we can find in books and the students explored the learner attributes that their character’s represented.

Whatever the age, we loved seeing the excitement that books bring and hope that the new books that have come home may inspire many to enjoy time this weekend with a great book. Role modelling and ensuring we all make room to read is one of the best ways to encourage reading – and to see the benefits that come from it.