27 Aug 2025
Good Shepherd Catholic School in Lockridge has once again triumphed in the Premier’s Reading Challenge, winning in the 401 to 600 students category with a 96% participation rate.
The school also made the Premier’s Reading Challenge hall of fame with Good Shepherd’s library technician, Helen making the Challenge champions Hall of Fame.
The school were joined by Education Minister, Hon Sabine Winton MLA to present awards to the students.
The Premier’s Reading Challenge encourages students to discover the joy of reading, improve their literacy skills and enjoy amazing stories. The challenge ran for 12 weeks from 7 April to 27 June 2025.
Students from students Kindy to Year 6 were asked why they love the Premier’s Reading Challenge with each year coming together to send a message about reading.
Good Shepherd’s Kindy class said they ‘like reading because they have lots of pictures’ adding that they ‘like Dewey, he has lots of eyes’.
The Pre-Primary class said they ‘like the Premier’s Reading Challenge because Dewey is here’ and they like ‘reading and stories all the time’ and they ‘love Dewey and like reading, we get stickers’.
The Year 1s said they ‘love Dewey and reading’ adding they like ‘going to the library to find books to read’. Winning was great they said, because ‘when we win, we get to see Dewey. We also get to see people who write books. It’s really fun’.
Year 2 love Dewey because ‘he is a kind and fluffy alien. He loves reading like us and he reads every night, and he is happy’.
Year 3 said
‘Reading is fun’ and they ‘love adventures in all the books’. They also loved Dewey ‘because he likes reading and he is a kind alien’.
Year 4 added
‘We get to read books that help us learn. The Premier’s Reading Challenge is cool because we get to meet Dewey and the authors’.
“When we read, we create stories in our head. We can imagine all sorts of things.”
The challenge ‘encourages us to read books. We get prizes for registering books. We love Dewey because he has big eyes and a nice heart. We get to see books that authors have written’.
In order to complete the challenge Kindergarten to Year 10 students read 12 or more books whilst Year 11 and 12 students read 6 or more books. Students could also log short stories, graphic novels, eBooks, talking books, poetry, audiobooks, and literary-based podcasts.
Year 5 like the Premier’s Reading Challenge because ‘when we read, we create stories in our head. We can imagine all sorts of things. We get to explore different types of books. We can then create a mixed story in our head with all the stories combined and become an author ourselves. We got to meet Dewey, he is really funny, and we met James Foley which was a great experience. We made a story together’.
Finally, Year 6 said ‘Dewey is very inspirational for kids who are starting to read. It encourages you to read and do your best. We love Dewey because he is a soft and hairy alien’.
