St Raphael's School Blog

St Raphael’s Catholic School fosters a love of reading from Reception to Year 6. We love reading and we love hearing which books our learners are currently enjoying. Our reading and literacy programs are led by our wonderfully skilled and dedicated staff. During Book Week, our learners engaged in buddy reading sessions. These opportunities strengthen the connection between our learners, enhance their reading and listening skills and allow a deeper sense of belonging in our school community.

Below you will find our five part series called 'St Raphael’s Catholic School Celebrates Reading' along with lots of photos from our Book Week celebrations and a few books our staff are passionate about.

Book Week at St Raphael's Catholic School

The Book Week parade is a highlight of our school's calendar and a special time of the year filled with much excitement and preparation. Our parade last Friday was an amazing example of creative expression, performance, collaboration and fun. Thank you to our learners and their parents and carers for all your hard work in helping make the amazing costumes. Well done!

Buddy Reading at St Raphael's Catholic School

To share their love of reading our learners participated in our buddy reading sessions during Book Week. This is a great way to strengthen connections between our learners, enhance their reading and listening skills and allow a deeper sense of belonging in our school community.

Teachers make school FUN at St Raphael's Catholic School

Our school communities love of reading is led by our wonderfully skilled and dedicated staff, who are involved with all aspects of school life. This includes dressing up in their favourite characters for our annual Book Week parade. Thank you for making our school a fun and happy place to learn.

Five part series: St Raphael’s Catholic School Celebrates Reading.

At St Raphael’s School we love reading and we love hearing which books our learners are currently enjoying. Book Week is a dedicated time to celebrate reading and the perfect time to share our learners love of books. We’ve created this five part series of our learners telling us about their favourite books.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Final Part 5

​St Raphael's Catholic School staff share some of their favourite books

"Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" by Doris Pilkington

"Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" by author Doris Pilkington, or her traditional name, Nugi Garimara, is one of my favourite books as it gives readers a deeper perspective on Australia's history based on a true story. It is hard to imagine being taken away from your home, family, and culture, especially as a young child, like Aboriginal children of the Stolen Generation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today experience intergenerational trauma from this past racist to government policy. This book paints a picture for the readers and shows us our ongoing responsibility to take action for reconciliation, building the relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and non-indigenous Australians.

I acknowledge Australia's First Peoples as the traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to Elders past present and future.

"Possum Magic" by Mem Fox

"Possum Magic" by Mem Fox is my favourite book. I have shared this with many students over the years as well as my own children. I was lucky enough to meet the author, Mem Fox. She visited my year 2 class at a previous school and read this story and some of her other books to the class. We then had a "Possum Magic" party to celebrate.

"Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry 

I loved reading this book allowed to my children the story is based in Denmark during World War 2 and told Through the Eyes of 10 year old Annemarie. Through lots of suspenseful twists, Annemarie shows courage to save her best friend Ellen and help Jewish people escape to Sweden across the Baltic Sea. It's a wonderful book for children to learn about history, friendship and the Holocaust.

"The Lorax" by Dr Seuss 

I rediscovered this childhood book with my own children. There are so many reasons I love this book and I think these two lines from the last page sum it up nicely: "UNLESS someone like you, cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

"Fozz on Football" by Craig Foster

Growing up as a child and adult, I played a lot of football and I had many coaches, most of whom were great. I came across this book around about the same time my son's junior football team was looking for a coach. I had seen a few copies of the book lying around the soccer club, so I decided to pick it up and read a little. Wow! What a read - I couldn't put it down! Craig Foster's ideas on how to play and coach the beautiful game are visionary and just what Australian football needed at the time of its publication. Foster also writes about Australia's World Cup history and what the Socceroos and the Matildas will need to do to eventually win the Holy Grail of football. Needless to say, once I had finished reading "Fozz on Football" I picked up my whistle and started coaching again.