WHS teams win reading & literacy event in PN

Winners of the Reading & Literacy in Manawatu Readers Cup for Year 9 students.

From the right - Calum Sinclair, Toni Adams, Laura Mackintosh and Benjamin White

Whanganui High School student, Calum Sinclair heard about ReaLM – Reading & Literacy in Manawatu Readers Cup for Year 9 students, from friends of his at Wanganui Collegiate School. He decided to enter a team on behalf of the High School, recruiting three others.

They were given six novels to read - a mixture of types including a graphic book retelling the tale of Snow White. The books ranged from 200 to over 400 pages. The holidays came and two of the team dropped out. Two others - Laura Mackintosh and Benjamin White, stepped in with only two to three weeks to read all the books.

Calum organised sessions out of school hours during which they questioned each other and practiced questions which had been prepared for other books. They named themselves ‘Fiction Addiction’ after dismissing other possibilities such as ‘Better Read than Dead,’ ‘Sentences and Sensibility,’ ‘The Litwits’ and ‘Literary Terrible’. They also developed their own chant and brought along their mascot. 

On the night they were coming third out of the 15 teams representing 10 schools. Collegiate had two teams. By the finish, they won by one point. The team said that the event was a fun one with plenty of games and a great MC. For winning, each member received a $20 voucher, a medal and a trophy which will grace one of the cabinets at High School. 

They also got three books which they chose, while Calum received five books to recognize that their team was student led.

Head of Faculty, Vicki Kasner, said that she was proud of the team, saying the challenge at Year 9 is to get students to read widely, work collaboratively in a team and continue to develop a love for reading. Participating in this competition also met all those goals.