The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge 2020 is encouraging children across the state to read more books to help build essential literacy skills that support their education.
Now in its 16th year, the theme of the 2020 Premiers’ Reading Challenge is ‘Reading: Everybody. Everyday.’
Thousands of avid readers in schools and early childhood centres are expected to take part.
Students in Years 3-10 need to read at least 15 books in the six months from March to September to complete the challenge. Students in Prep-Year 2 students are required to read or experience 30 books.
“Supporting children to read is one of the most powerful things you can do to encourage a love of reading and literacy – developing skills that will set them up for life,” said Victorian Minister for Education James Merlino.
Over 12,000 books feature on the list – 150 of them new. Children can read picture books, short stories, poems or non-fiction books in any language as part of the challenge.
Children who have not yet started school are challenged to read or experience 40 books with the help of their families as part of the Premiers’ Reading Challenge for the Early Years.
A key education target for Victoria is to increase the number of Year 5 and Year 9 students reaching the highest levels of achievement in reading by 25 per cent.
Last year 113,000 students and children from 956 local schools, 1367 early childhood services and homes across the state completed the Challenge and explored 4.3 million books.
Since the challenge began in 2005, over 3 million students in Victoria have read nearly 50 million books.
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