This year’s Champions Read started off with the entire College reading in our first Extended Form for the Term. It was amazing to walk around the College to take photos and witness an atmosphere of calmness and quiet everywhere! It’s always astounding how reading has the power to calm the racing mind and the create stillness and peace. Just as J.K. Rowling is quoted as saying, “I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”
When students have entered the Research and Study Centre (RASC) during the first weeks of this Term, they have been invited to go through our wardrobe and enter the magical winter realm of Narnia from C.S. Lewis’ classic novel, ‘The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe’. We have also created a popular photo booth area where many Form and group photos have been taken and posted around the College. You can keep up with what is happening in the RASC during Champions Read and the rest of the year by following our Instagram page, @KennedyRASC.
Each week we have a ‘guess the book in a jar’ competition. We also ran a ‘beat AI’ contest, where students had to guess book titles from the image that was created with our prompts using Canva’s Magic Media. Congratulations to our winner Lilliana (11K2) who won a Beedawong voucher for her sleuthing skills. Another competition was our magical themed colouring-in contest and we had many amazing entries from talented students. Matthew (10F2), Keira (10K2), Amelia (9O2) and Jasmine (8K1) were all finalists. Later this week we will be having a Magical Fantasy Kahoot competition. There’s always plenty happening inside the walls of the RASC!
The books and the competitions made their way outside in Week 3 when a whole-school ‘Dress-Up Day’ saw students (and staff!) come dressed as their favourite book character. This was one of our most successful years and our Recess parade, MC’d by our 2025 Head Boy and Head Girl, Lucas and MJ, was a great time to celebrate books and their characters. Matilda (8H1) won the major student prize with her Little Red Hen outfit while Damon (9K1) as Legolas, and Kate (10K1) as Strawberry Shortcake were awarded second and third place, respectively.
The Maths Department made some fabulous calculations as characters from The Wizard of Oz and added to their trophy cabinet, with the last three ‘Best Dressed Learning Area’ prizes going to their Department. Mrs Norton won the best-dressed individual staff member in her handmade Star Wars costume.
Meanwhile, our students have continued to earn House points for every 15 minutes that they have spent reading during the first three weeks of the Term, with the winning House to be announced in the Week 4 Assembly. I hope that this time has inspired our students to continue to discover the magic of reading.
Ms Natasha Georgiou
Head of Research and Study
