St Mary’s School Claim The Readers Cup

What was your favourite novel as a child? Do you think you could have read and memorized five novels to take part in a competition?

That’s the premise behind the Readers Cup. Organised by the Queensland branch of the Children Book Council of Australia, Fitzgerald State School was the host for the annual competition in Mackay. The competition requires teams to read and study five novels.

Schools were invited to send a team of up to five students to compete in the Year 5/6 primary school competition.

This year the cup went to St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Mackay. The team consisted of Katie Sul, Lara Savige, Lily Cheyne, Millie Camilleri and Georgia Arbuthnot.

Throughout the term the girls worked independently to study the texts and composed their own questions to test each other in preparation for the competition.

St Mary’s School has been working towards improving reading engagement and reading success across the whole school. Every student from Prep to Year 6 participates in ‘Boost Reading’ sessions where students read in small groups with direct support from a teacher or teacher’s aide. These sessions occur up to three times per week and provide opportunities for students to boost or extend their reading skills.

The Year 6 teachers used this time to allow their Readers Cup team to work independently to prepare for the competition.

The school’s literacy intervention teacher, Val Paul, nominated the team.

“It was a wonderful opportunity for the girls to challenge themselves as readers,” Mrs Paul said.

St Mary’s School has now been invited to represent Mackay at the Readers Cup State Finals to be held in Brisbane. The team will have to read another five novels and prepare for more questions to test their knowledge.

Four of the five members of the winning St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Readers Cup team, consisting of Katie Sul, Lara Savige, Lily Cheyne, Millie Camilleri and Georgia Arbuthnot

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