Victorian children and young people are preparing to take on the challenge to read more books as the Premiers’ Reading Challenge gets underway.
The Member for Northern Victoria, Mark Gepp encouraged parents and teachers to get children involved in the Premiers’ Reading Challenge 2020, which launched this week.
Now, in its 16th year, the Premiers’ Reading Challenge continues to inspire more children to read, helping to build essential literacy skills that support their education.
Last year, 711 primary and secondary students in the Shepparton region took the challenge.
The theme of this year’s Premiers’ Reading Challenge is ‘Reading: Everybody. Everyday.’
According to Mr Gepp, “Reading a book can be done anywhere, anytime. In these challenging times, engaging kids in positive activities, such as reading and participating in the challenge, is a great opportunity to help develop their imagination and literacy skills.”
Students in Years 3-10 need to read at least 15 books in the six months from March to September to complete the challenge. For prep-Year 2 students, the challenge is to read or experience 30 books.
More than 12,000 books feature on the list – 150 of them new. Children can read picture books, short stories, poems or non-fiction books in any language as part of the challenge.
Children who have not yet started school are challenged to read or experience 40 books with the help of their families as part of the Premiers’ Reading Challenge for the Early Years.
Since the challenge began in 2005, more than three million students in Victoria have read nearly 50 million books. For more information, visit: www.education.vic.gov.au/prc
