Students, teachers, and parents alike had an amazing time celebrating the joy of reading during the annual Regency Park Book Week. Activities during the week included a visit from a celebrated author, a parent-led story time, a book fair, and “buddy reading”.

"Hats Off to Reading!" was the theme of this year’s Book Week. The week opened with a Year 1–6 Assembly in the Regency Park Campus Gym, featuring the author of Hats Off!, Mr Neil Griffiths.With plenty of laughter and audience participation, special guest Griffiths retold his book The Journey in his style of interactive storytelling. The opening assembly set the scene for the rest of the week, which also included fun storytelling for students, teachers, and parents!

Parents got in on the fun by volunteering to read to the students in all year levels. In one class, a parent read a children’s book in Spanish and his daughter translated the book in English for her classmates. The students appreciated the experience of hearing a storybook from another culture.

Promoting friendships across year levels, Year 6 students paid a visit to the K4 classrooms to "buddy up" together and read books full of colourful illustrations to their younger classmates. It was a mix of literature and fun for all students.

Book week was an exciting time for all the students, it was definitely a very active and fun occasion for all. According to Ms Tanya Jordan, “This year’s Book Week will be remembered as having the most dancing of the school year, and the Closing Assembly was no different! Our visiting author, Mr Neil Griffiths, had students, staff, and parents disco dance to Boogie Wonderland and enjoy a funny drama with student actors”.

The big highlight of the week for students was the “Drop Everything And Read” (DEAR) day, with students wearing their pyjamas and slippers to school. A few students even brought along their snuggly blankets and teddy bears, which were a welcome addition, for enjoying cosy DEAR reading time in class.

With a variety of events to promote a culture and appreciation for reading, the annual Book Week . With busy, well-stocked libraries on all four YCIS campuses, reading is part of the culture for students (and teachers, staff, and parents) at YCIS. For more information about the Primary programme at YCIS click here.