At the start of Term 32025, Junee North Public School began a Reading Challenge. The aim is to increase children’s engagement with reading at home, whilst encouraging school spirit and having a bit of fun. The Challenge is simple. As a school, we wanted to see if we can read enough nights before the end of the year to virtually travel around Australia. For every night that each child reads at home, they are rewarded with 5 kilometres of virtual travel. Each fortnight at assembly we discover how far we have virtually travelled, and the children learn about the different locations we have travelled to.
So far, we have virtually travelled from Junee up the eastern coast of Australia. After the first fortnight, the children enjoyed a banana for Fruit Break, as we had virtually visited the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour.
During the second fortnight, we continued up the eastern coast all the way to Cape York, and then virtually visited the Torres Strait Islands. The children were rewarded by enjoying an ice cream on the virtual beach (playground).
This fortnight, the children have read so many nights at home that we have already made it to the Northern Territory. We are all learning about Australia and this wonderful country we call home.
The Reading Challenge has been even more successful than we had hoped. To support children in being successful, outside bean bags have been purchased and a reading nook has been established in the playground.
On most mornings, there is standing room only, and the children can be seen and heard reading to each other and discussing what they are reading. Each fortnight the children are excited to hear about all the places we have virtually visited. They are also eager to hear which class had the highest average number of nights of reading. Class winners have included Kindergarten, Stage 3, and Stage 1.
The success of the program has also been recognised by the school community. Chris Fish, a parent and Junee North Public-School P&C representative has commented, “Our boys are so excited to tell us all about their virtual travels around Australia and what they earned along the way (we couldn’t believe the whole school had icecreams the other day!) Now, instead of us nagging them to read, they’re begging us to listen. Well done Junee North!”
What began as a program to increase the engagement in home reading has become so much more. Where will Junee North travel to next?
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