We’ve decided that this year’s CBCA Book Week theme ‘Read, Grow, Inspire’ has been one of our favourites. As we celebrated the theme across the term, the excitement and enthusiasm grew for our annual Primary Book Week Parade and the Secondary Character Day events. We were once again in awe at the spectacular costumes students, staff and families helped create to highlight favourite books, authors and this year’s theme so magnificently.

Events like this not only celebrate the wonderful relationship between children and books but they also honour the role that authors and illustrators play in a young person’s development. Favourite authors and books can plant seeds of inspiration and cultivate knowledge, encouraging young people to explore other worlds, walk in a character’s footsteps, develop creativity and empathy and most importantly spark a love of reading that will stay with them for life. As we continue to look for ways to ‘grow’ readers at GCC we say a heartfelt thank you to our community for helping make Book Week flourish in 2023!

Ideas bloomed with the ‘Read, Grow, Inspire’ theme across Primary and Secondary:

Primary Activities

• Lego Legends Competition judged by Ben the Brick Builder
• Bluey Show Marathon
• Reading and relaxing in our very own Secret Garden
• Stained glass cellophane flowers and scratch art leaves for our ‘Poetree’
• Year 4-6 Author Visit and Breakout Writing Session with R A Spratt
• CBCA Shortlisted Younger Reader Verse Novel ‘Way of the Dog’ Book Club
• ‘Grass Head’ character creations for our Prep – Year 6 Teachers
• Reading in nature in the GCC Bush Chapel

Secondary Activities

• Make ‘n Do activities including; water colour illustrations, scratch art, origami art and growing ‘Grass Head’ characters
• Riddle Chase antics based on solving creative clues around the College
• Relax and Read sessions for Middle School
• Giant Pass the Parcel Lit Quiz
• Book Week Breakfast to celebrate the love of reading and an opportunity to hear the shared stories of authors from within our College community
• ‘Tunes under the tree’ – at the end of a wonderful week listening to inspirational lyrics and smooth tunes from some of our talented senior students

Primary Book Week Competition Winners 2023

Congratulations to the following Primary Book Week Competition Winners 2023. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Primary Winners’ Showcase

Lego Legends

1st Place

Karter Kilchester & Nate Van Gilst ‘Car Junction’ 6W

Highly Commended

Lauren Stout & Ashley Orchard  ‘Surfers Paradise’ Year 5M

Artwork

‘Magical Mountain’ By Kundai Banda 4G

Poetry

‘Waves within the pages’
By Hannah Rae Year 5M

The great Titanic lies deep beneath, lost to life on the surface.
It was shipwrecked and lost at sea.
Many years ago the tragedy occurred, and now it rests in the sand.
Now an artificial reef that blooms with new life down underneath.
It provides shelter for little fish and a home for eels and sharks.
But what other mysteries lurk down in the vast murky waters?
Young minds like mine have questions to ask and an appetite for more knowledge.
What great treasures lie beneath and within the pages?
Love, joy, grief, loss and determination.
Tales of history, tragedy and answers, all are found as we read and grow

‘Rainbow Creek’
By Ayla White 1G

Rainbow, rainbow, feather’s beak
Let’s all go play hide and seek
The games we play are not for the meek

Secondary Book Week Competitions

Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent art and photography competition inspired by the Book Week 2023 theme: Read Grow Inspire…

It’s been exciting to see students share their creative talent in art and photography and to see how others are consequently inspired to have a go or to appreciate art and nature even more!

You are welcome to come on in and take a look at the fantastic student artwork and photography entries and make a People’s Choice vote for your favourite. Our judges this week had a tough job deciding on the Competition winners and were inspired by the wonderful entries they saw on display.

The winning entries for 2023 are:

Character Day 2023

Congratulations to all who participated in the fun of Character Day 2023. The atmosphere was amazing, the costumes more than colourful and the fun of the Kahoot Challenge had everyone cheering their team along. Congratulations to the Year 8 and Year 10 teams who took out the Kahoot Challenge  ‘trophy’ for 2023!

Well done to all the PC classes who took on the Participation Challenge and came dressed as a character for Book Week Character day this year. The colour, excitement and enthusiasm was fantastic!. Congratulations to 9W and 10G for taking out the PC Participation Excellence Awards for 2023. A Pizza Lunch is coming their way very soon!  A special thank you is extended to Mr. Maguire and the Year 12 Literature Class for the video compilation of our staff favourites. The video montages and bloopers reel were not only interesting but also very entertaining.  We’re looking forward to reliving the clever, the brave, and the quirky moments when we see all the photos on Pixevity or Facebook. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of the day – we couldn’t have done it without you! All in all, a Supercalifragilistic day!

For more photos please click here

Vanessa McKellar and Beryl Morris, Teacher Librarians