St Dominic's School, Broadmeadows VIC

The students at St Dominic's School in Broadmeadow, Victoria always get excited for assemblies but when it’s a Book Giving Assembly they are animated. The students have been asking their teachers for weeks and couldn’t wait a moment longer. So they were very eager to get their Books in Homes Book Bags with new books!

This term, Role Model Jackie Kerin, a storyteller, attended the assembly and she was absolutely fabulous. The students were immersed in Jackie's stories and thought she was very funny!

The teachers at St Dominic's School has put together a lovely Powerpoint presentation of the Book Giving Assembly, check it out below!

Budding artists at Hastings Westpark Primary School!

Hastings Westpark Primary School’s Book Giving Assembly was absolutely fantastic!!

Author and Illustrator Gabrielle Wang, was an amazing Books in Homes Role Model!!

Gabrielle taught the students how to draw Peng (pronounced "Pong"), a dragon from her book - The Hidden Monastery.

 The students loved it, the teachers loved it and even the parents loved it and got involved.

The kids are over the moon with their new books, thanks to sponsorship from Mainfreight Australia!

Books in Homes has an app, check it out!

Books in Homes in partnership with Evolve Systems Distribution has developed an "app" which can now be downloaded from The Apple Store for FREE on your iPhone / smartphone / android and ipad / tablet:

• Apple URL: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/books-in-homes/id586629731?ls=1&mt=8
• Android URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app_bih.layout&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5hcHBfYmloLmxheW91dCJd
• HTML5 URL: http://portal.evolvemobile.com.au/html5/?appcode=BIH

We have developed this "app" for a number of reasons including;

1. to find out which books are actually being read and why through a Reading Log;
2. to provide a platform for students, teachers, and parents to easily comment on the Programme;
3. to provide ready access to current Book Catalogues for parents should the Catalogues their children receive not actually make it home;
4. to provide access to the current term's schedules.

We hope that you will check out our new form of FREE communication!!

Should you have any ideas on how we could add this APP, please, we would welcome your comments and suggestions. Please leave a comment below or forward any comments to kimkingston@booksinhomesaustralia.com.au

Should you be interested in developing your own App, we highly recommend Evolve Systems Distribution, who focus is on the following key areas:

• www.Evolvemobile.com.au - a great mobile solution for small business. Mention you are a friend and we will give them special pricing just for March only. Check out www.evolve.mobile.com.au/video
• www.evolvehosting.com.au - we can do beautiful websites and ecommerce solutions at great pricing.
• www.evolvecrm.com.au - this product is in pre-launch phase where we can take on selected clients under special pricing. This is cloud based contact management that sync your customers and stock from your accounting system. We will even have the ability to have a live ecommerce store or customer service portal. Pricing will start from $15 - $50 per month per user.

Kim Kingston
National Operations Coordinator

What’s it really like living in a remote NT community?

Yesterday, I received the following letter from Ngukurr Community Education Centre in the NT. It articulates extremely well the challenges of living in a remote NT community and why a Programme like Books in Homes is so sorely needed. Would love to hear your comments!!! 

Kim Kingston 

(Click on the letter to enlarge)

Brenton E. McKenna - Book Catalogue Role Model for Term 1, 2013

We're very excited to release the first Books in Homes Book Catalogue for 2013!

 

We are so fortunate to have the amazing Brenton E. McKenna as this term's Role Model. Brenton is an Indigenous artist and writer and is located in Broome in the beautiful Kimberley Region of Western Australia. He has just published his first graphic novel, Ubby’s Underdogs: The Legend of the Phoenix Dragon, with Indigenous publisher Magabala Books - it is really COOL!!!! AND is available for participating Books in Homes students to choose from the Green section of the Books in Homes Primary Catalogue this term!

Don't forget the Books in Homes Role Model competition this term - every student who enters will receive an achievement certificate!!! AND we will choose 25 winners who shall receive one of every item highlighted on page 2 of the Book Catalogue which are donated by Scholastic Australia.

As a bonus question this term, we have asked students to draw a short comic strip showing who they read their Books in Homes books to. The winning comic strip will be published on a Books in Homes bookmark and distributed to participating students and families in Term 4, 2013.

Students will find details of the competition in their Book Catalogue.

So lets join Brenton and start drawing!

Majella Catholic Primary School, Balga WA

Majella Catholic Primary School in Balga outside of Perth incorporated their Book Giving Assembly into their Prayer Assembly which was held on Friday 7^th December. Their role model, Frané Lessac was also in attendance. She is both an Author and an Illustrator!

The assembly was full of excitement and the energy from the students was infectious! The students are just thrilled to be taking part in the Books in Home Programme!! So much so, that they are continually bring their books to school and home again everyday! They love them!!! You can tell from the BIG smiles on their faces!!!

Thank you Mainfreight Australia for your sponsorship at Majella Catholic Primary School!!!

Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, Waterloo

Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in NSW had their best Book Giving Assembly to date on Thursday 6^th December 2012! After lunch Assembly started off in the Library with the students meeting their Books in Homes School Role Model Christopher Cheng. The amazing author! He told the students lots of interesting stories and they were all very funny ones! Also both Warren O'Rourke and Marissa Bonett from QBE Foundation attended. They spoke to the students before they received their new books. Once the students received their books they were so happy and excited they even started to read them and forgot they were in an assembly! 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, Waterloo would like to say a HUGE thank you to the QBE Foundation and their volunteer reading mentors Angela, Carmen and Jamie. All the students were so excited that they got to see a BIG cheque from the QBE Foundation and this will help them to receive and read more new books next year! What a great way to end the year!

 Thank You QBE FOUNDATION for your support towards the 

Books in Homes Programme in six schools across Australia!