Dear Parents & Carers of Good Samaritan,

This week we are celebrating Book Week. Book Week has been recognised around Australia since 1945 and is our opportunity to celebrate books and Australian authors and illustrators. 

Reading can take a child into a different world. A world of imagination and possibilities. Developing a love of reading starts very early in life. Being read to as a baby and toddler develops the cognitive skills of children as they mature and grow into school age and adolescent people.

Back in the late nineteenth century, Lewis Carroll prepared his famous nursery version of Alice in Wonderland. Carroll’s work prodded the curiosity of children for generations. It also developed habits of observation through the illustrations and suggested some truths about human and animal nature - all the while making it fun and entertaining.

As parents, reading with children develops not only the close relationship between parent and child but also what psychologists call functioning in the child’s zone of ‘proximal development’ - stretching what a child can do with a little support and assistance along the way.

Reading leads to developing storytelling skills. I am sure you would have come across people who capture the attention of others with the stories they are able to recount about their own lives and experiences. Storytelling is a powerful way to organise lived and listened to experiences and it provides an entry into developing relationships with others, even those we have only just met.

One of the greatest storytellers of our Catholic tradition was Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus was able to capture the imagination and attention of the people he met through stories - parables. Those who listened to Jesus became so great in number that he used the hills of Israel to form a natural amphitheatre so that he could be heard amongst the crowds.

So, 76 years after the introduction of Book Week in Australia, reading to and with children is one of the greatest gifts a child can receive. In this time of lockdown and remote learning, I encourage you to read with your child for complete enjoyment. It will give you positive moments that you will treasure, a relationship that is forged in imagination and a child who can tell a story that is filled with observations, experiences and emotion.

Until next week, we journey together, with Jesus,

Toni Sillis

Principal