With 1,051 teachers on board from 151 schools and kura reading collectively over a million pages, the 2023 Reading Challenge exceeded everyone’s expectations.

“After declining participation in our summer reading challenges over previous years, this was a simple idea inspired by international challenges that we decided to give a try,” says Juliet Blyth, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura CEO.

“We were floored by the enthusiasm from school staff all across the motu, and the sheer level of engagement with both the competition and with reading…it really refutes some of the negative discourse around reading statistics.”

The impetus for the challenge lies in data: research presented by the National Library of New Zealand supports the importance of teachers (and other school staff) role modelling reading for students, and creating a school-wide reading culture.

The staff who entered the Challenge agreed that it gave them great motivation for summer reading: 70% reported reading more over the summer break as a result of the challenge, and 65% said they read more Aotearoa New Zealand books.

Among the winners for various individual and school team prizes were Mt Roskill Grammar, Macleans College, and Wairarapa College, who enjoyed class book sets from generous publishers and visits from authors through the Writers in Schools programme.

This year, prizes are supported by a range of publishers, along with Booksellers Aotearoa. The challenge has also been refined based on feedback from the first iteration.

“We’ve heard the comments from smaller schools wanting to even the playing field, so we’ve refined the points mechanism: points gained will now be averaged across the number of members in the school team.”

There is also an increased emphasis on team visibility, with all team members (not just the top ten) visible on the team’s page.

“Each change takes a lot of resource to build and we’re doing this on a shoestring, but it’s important to us to make this as great an experience as possible for our participants,” says Juliet.

With over 200 teachers on board within 24 hours of signups opening, this year’s Challenge looks set to be another resounding success.

Sign up as part of your school team at reading-challenge.org.nz