November 27, 2015
Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington has been kept busy recently handing out certificates to local school students who have successfully completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
But when Mrs Frecklington attended St Mary’s Catholic College on Friday afternoon to hand out certificates for the Prep to Year 6 students, she found a very proud school librarian Melanie Burr and a special school assembly.
Mrs Burr explained that all 270 children had attempted the challenge and succeeded – a 100 per cent success rate.
There were so many certificates to present that Mrs Frecklington handed them out to each class teacher rather than to the individual students.
Each teacher was also presented with a gift for use by the class.
To successfully complete the challenge, students must read a set number of books (although the students get to choose which titles they want to read).
The aim is to encourage the children to develop a love of reading for life.
Prep to Year 2 students must read (or “experience”) 20 books; Years 3-4 must read 20 books and Years 5-6 15 books.
The older students have a smaller number of books because the titles they will be selecting are much longer than the books designed for very young readers.
Mrs Frecklington congratulated the students on their reading efforts.
Certificates were also presented to students taking part in the school’s Accelerated Reading program.
A special award was handed to Year 4 student Samuel Erwin who was set a challenge to read one million words, but surpassed his own expectations by reading two million.
Mrs Burr said this was the fourth time that St Mary’s Catholic College had taken part in the Premier’s Reading Challenge, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.
The school also achieved a 100 per cent success rate last year, but with fewer students.
“The year we had 270 kids and we had another 100 per cent success rate, ” she said.
