National Simultaneous Storytime
We were thrilled to celebrate our school’s involvement in National Simultaneous Storytime (NSST), which took place on Wednesday 21 May, alongside over 2.2 million participants at more than 16,000 venues across Australia.
Now in its 25th year, this annual event, coordinated by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), aims to foster a love of reading and boost literacy among children nationwide.
The featured book for 2025 was The Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel, beautifully illustrated by Danny Snell. Exploring themes of identity, belonging, friendship, immigration, and connection, it was also shortlisted in the Picture Book category for the 2025 Children’s Book Council of Australia awards.
A range of activities brought the story to life across various year levels. I had the pleasure of reading the book to students in 1L, while Kindergarten enjoyed a digital reading via StoryBox Library, complete with visuals of an actual truck and cat! Year 3 watched the official livestream coverage at midday, and 5JW followed along individually on their laptops. These activities provided opportunities for discussion on text structure and organisation, language for expressing and developing ideas, and opportunities to interact with others and to create literature.
We look forward to participating in future celebrations that foster a love of books and storytelling in the Primary School.
Karen McBride
Primary Teacher Librarian
