North Albany Senior High School students share reading passion after big Premier’s Reading Challenge effort

Keen readers at North Albany Senior High School were celebrated on Wednesday for their bookish efforts in this year’s Premier’s Reading Challenge. Over the 18 weeks of the challenge, which ended in October, 122 of the school’s students read a total of 899 books. On Wednesday, the NASHS students with the highest book counts were awarded certificates by head of library services Barb McNeil and principal Matthew Swatek. Ms McNeil said the school’s Year 7 students had been the champions of the challenge and described their efforts as “pretty impressive”. “Reading is a really important thing and it helps students learn,” she said. “But most importantly, it gives them a way to relax, relieve their stress and develop sympathy.” Year 7 student Harrison McWhirter was one of the school’s biggest readers, logging 90 books during the challenge and said his favourite reads were the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Year 9 student Brianna Patterson, who read 36 books during the challenge, said she could read quickly allowing her to finish books fast. “I like how you can visit their worlds in your mind and then create the characters as your own friends,” Brianna said. The Premier’s Reading Challenge aims to develop student’s love of reading and support literacy education and this year drew the participation of more than 28,200 students from 845 schools across WA, who read an overall total of 300,142 books.