Bourchier St Primary joins national storytime

By Gianni Francis

May 26, 2022

Story time: Teacher Meg Brown reading to her Foundation Students. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Bourchier St Primary School students joined more than two million children across Australia in National Simultaneous Storytime, a live-streamed reading of picture book Family Tree.

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Classes of all year levels tuned in at 11am on Wednesday, May 25, with the Preps doing their best to sit still for the 10-minute live reading by author Josh Pyke.

Hitting the books: Year 6 students Temperance Thu, 10, and Savleen Khattra, 11. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

The Australian Library and Information Association organises NSS to promote literacy and a love of reading in school children, and Bouchier St Primary School participates every year.

This year’s book explores the concepts of family and community, which Foundation teacher Stacey Price said aligned perfectly with the values the school was trying to impart to students.

Immersed: Foundation student Olivia Jones, 5. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Concentrating: Tabitha Murphy-Keating, 5, in Foundation. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

“We're looking at community for our inquiry topic this term,” she said.

"So all of the new levels are doing different things to get out into the community.

“So this is nice, especially for the Foundation students, because they obviously have a strong understanding of family, but not so much a community yet.

Focus: Foundation student Amelia Pattison, 6. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Big smile: Meilani Johnson-Campbell, 5, in Foundation. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

“It's a good way for them to understand that there's people outside of just their family as well.”

Fascinating: Year 5 student Xavier Cartwright, 10. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

The Foundation teachers did their best to help the kids visualise the abstract concept of what ‘two million’ means, which may have been somewhat lost on them.

“The older kids, I think they understand it a little bit more,” Ms Price said.

“I teach Preps and this morning I was trying to get into their heads that everyone across the country was tuning in.

“And I said ‘what's the country?’ and the preps were like ‘Shepparton?’ and I said ‘No, try again.’"