Details of the process for schools

What do schools do?

Identify and register a Coordinator or Coordinators and a contact person (including creating EduWeb accounts)
Register the school on the online system
Organise student participation (including distribution of promotional material)
Re-allocate previously registered students and register new students
Ensure students record their reading
Verify students’ reading records
Check that online data is correct

Identify and register a Coordinator

Schools must identify at least one Coordinator to register the school and coordinate student records. It is recommended, particularly in larger schools, that a number of teachers register as Coordinators on the online system to share the workload of registering students, verifying reading and finalising details. Schools with more than one campus must have at least one Coordinator on each campus. In addition, each school must identify a School Challenge contact person, for contact from Office for Government School Education staff.

In a government school, a Coordinator will be a person who has an existing Edumail user name and password. In a non-government school it will be a person with an EduWeb account created for access to the Reading Challenge. For further information, see EduWeb accounts.

School Reading Challenge Coordinators are responsible for

recording up to date enrolment information
assigning Coordinator status to other staff where appropriate
organising student participation, registration and re-allocation
confirming and checking the accuracy of the details of students registered under their school, including the spelling and order of student names for printing on certificates
verifying student completion of books
verifying parent consent for publishing their child's name on the Reading Challenge Achievers Honour Roll
ensuring all school records are complete and accurate by the end of the Challenge
emailing the reading challenge Edumail account to notify that the school's data is completed and has been checked

Coordinators log in to the online system by clicking on the 'School login' link on the left hand menu of any page of the Challenge website.

Register the school on the online system

Only one Coordinator needs to complete the school registration, by logging in to the online system and completing the 'Register school wizard'.

Only one registration is available for each school. In schools with more than one campus, enrolment numbers entered must include students across all campuses. Additional registrations cannot be created for multi campus schools.

Schools participating in the Challenge are listed for public information. Schools are added to this list on the business day after they are registered.

Organise student participation

Schools can register and participate in the Reading Challenge with any number of students.

Each school needs to set a date for students to complete the Challenge which allows time for the School Reading Challenge Coordinators to complete online data and verification no later than 10 September 2012. It is recommended that this date is no earlier than 3 September 2012. Any change to student or school records will not be possible after 10 September 2012.

Bookmarks and posters to promote the Challenge are available free by request from Coghlan. Orders should be placed on a school basis, not for individual classes. To order, email melbourne@coghlan.com.au with the number of bookmarks and posters you require and a contact name and mailing address. Please include the words 'VPRC request for bookmarks and posters' in the subject line.

Samples of the bookmarks and posters available for 2012 are available.

Record cards which can be used as bookmarks are available for download from the Information for students section of the website.

Consent forms

Consent is required for a student to participate in the Challenge. A consent form for schools to send out to parents and guardians is available for download here (Word - 51Kb). The consent form may be customised with the school's logo, return dates or other information.

Parents and students must sign Section 2 of the Consent form for the names of successful students to be published in the Reading Challenge Achievers' Honour Roll published by The Age.

Schools are responsible for sending and maintaining records of all consent forms.

Participation for Prep to Year 2 students

Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students can read independently or ‘experience’ books for the Challenge. Students must read or ‘experience’ 30 books to meet the Challenge, at least 20 of which are from the Challenge book list.

‘Experiencing’ a book can include a range of classroom or home activities such as a class reading of a big book, shared reading, listening and reading along with a text and being read to. Students can share their reading with parents, teachers, aides, siblings, student buddies or classmates.

Students in Prep to Year 2 must read and record 30 books to meet the Challenge regardless of the year level for which the books are listed.

Re-allocate previously registered students and register new students

Students who have previously participated in the Challenge should be re-allocated to the new year’s Challenge.

New students can be registered individually. Classes of up to 30 students can be uploaded for bulk registration.

Tips for registering students online

Ensure students record their reading

Students must be registered before books can be recorded. It is recommended that students are given access to their own records and encouraged to record books for themselves. It is also recommended that books are entered progressively onto the system throughout the Challenge and that Coordinators verify books throughout the Challenge. This will significantly reduce the administration and data entry required to complete the Challenge.

A number of options for recording reading are also available through the online system.

Verify students’ reading records

To complete the Challenge a student must have the required number of books for his or her year level verified on his or her reading list.

Check that online data is correct

Before the close of the Challenge on 10 September 2012, Coordinators need to ensure all online data is correct.

1. Finalise verification of the students’ reading.

To do this, generate the school’s Students report. This provides a list of all students who have completed the Challenge, which means they have the required number of books entered and verified on the system. Coordinators can also choose to view a list of all registered students and their completion status.

School reports can be viewed on screen or printed. Reports can be printed using the print icon on the internet browser. They are also available for export in a number of formats, including Excel (.xls) or Comma Separated Value (.csv) formats which allow editing. Coordinators should discuss the most appropriate format to use with local Information Technology experts or support staff.

Generate the Students report and check:

that all the students who have completed the Challenge are listed as ‘Yes’
that all the students who have permission to have their name printed in the Premier’s Reading Challenge Achievers Honour Roll have a ‘Y’ in the consent column
that students’ names for certificates are spelt correctly.

If any student who you believe has completed the Challenge is listed as ‘No’, or the consent or spelling details are incorrect, return to the student’s details or reading list and update the information.

2. When the Students report is accurate, send an email to readingchallenge@edumail.vic.gov.au with the subject line 'Data completed and checked – INSERT SCHOOL NAME'.

Emails will be acknowledged. The data recorded online will be used to print certificates and names in the Reading Challenge Achievers Honour Roll. Certificates will not be reprinted on the basis of errors in this data.

After 10 September 2012, Coordinators will be able to view and print student records and school reports, but not edit them.

More information

For more information see:

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD)

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