2023, Term 3, Edition 12 - Library - Casey Grammar School

Book Week Activities

The last of our Book Week activities have concluded and we are slowly gearing down to holidays. I know the students will be as well. It has been a long, eventful and exciting term. Will Kostakis was our final author presentation for the Years 7 and 8 students and the book week dress up was the conclusion to the last day of Book Week.

Will Kostakis

Author of The First Third and many other titles, Will Kostakis came to Casey Grammar on 28 August. He wrote the text studied at Year 8. This meant that the Year 8 cohort had a sound understanding of one of his books and he was able to spend some time unpacking the ideas and themes in this book. The Year 7s, however, were treated to more of an introduction to how Will started writing. An incredibly honest and humorous recount of emails sent from publishers to a teenage boy were shared, and the common theme of perseverance in the face of setback can make any dream come true. Since then, our collection of Will’s books has been borrowed and reborrowed, and students have been sharing their ideas and thoughts on his many novels. It is excellent to hear the discussions.

Book Week Parade

Both Senior and Junior school students were able to dress up as their favourite book character for Book Week. This is an excellent opportunity to have meaningful conversations about books. Junior School students were able to show off their costumes in the Book Week parade. It was great to see the confidence of students who were able to tell the audience who they were dressed up as. Thank you to all families who helped their young ones come to school as a book character. We know this would not be possible for many without help from home.

Reading During the Holidays

Students should take advantage of extra hours of free time to engage in reading for pleasure. Through some of the programs run in the library, both Junior and Secondary School students are able to track their reading progress through the year and see whether they are improving or not. When students take the time to read books within their reading range (level of text difficulty), they are able to see the improvement of skills like spelling, grammar and comprehension, among many other benefits of reading. However, students have also noticed that taking a break from reading can sometimes see these skills go backwards. Reading is like exercise. Without constant, small sessions of exercise we see our progress go backwards and feel like our hard work was for nothing.

Like any muscle, if we had the strength and flexibility once, we can get it back and even improve upon it when we resume our routine. We just need to make the conscious decision to invest the time and energy into it and it will come back quickly. Students should continue to read over the break so that when they return to school, they are able to start the term in a strong position rather than spending the first few weeks regaining what they had at the end of the previous term.

Students are able to borrow physical books over the September holidays. If they manage to complete all the books that they have borrowed, they have access to our online platform of books called Sora (students can access this through their SEQTA accounts on a computer or by downloading the app on a smartphone or tablet).

Students in Years 3 and above have been shown how to access and use this. However, if any student would like some further information, they can come into the library before the holidays and get a pamphlet that goes through all the steps. Younger students can access this too. Feel free to contact the library before school holidays if you would like to know how. I hope you all have a fantastic break and are feeling refreshed and ready for Term 4.