Shadow Judging

Learning in the Library

This year a panel of Year 6 Gioia House and Year 10 students took on the role of judging the shortlisted books selected by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA), judging the younger and older reader categories respectively. Each panel met once a week at lunchtimes with the Teacher Librarians to discuss the six titles from their respective categories.

Part of their role was to commit to reading all six books in Term 2 and the first part of Term 3 so that, as Shadow Judges, they could deliberate and select a winning title on behalf of Santa Sabina College. It was wonderful to see the students refer to the same criteria used by the CBCA judges, providing opportunities to debate the literary merits of each title. Participating schools in this initiative were also asked by the CBCA to submit their vote for the winning title. The votes were tallied and the Shadow Judging winners were announced the same day as the CBCA selected winners. Interestingly, our selected winning title, (Inkflower by Suzy Zail) matched the Shadow Judging collective vote from participating schools.  The same applied for the younger reader category. Our panel chose Scar Town by Tristan Bancks which coincided with the collective vote!

We would like to thank our participating Year Shadow Judges who volunteered their time to support this exciting initiative. In Year 10 we thank Annelies Notelaers, Charlize Cencigh, Harris-Roxas, Emily Chase, Poppy Haigh, Eve Ardagna, and Allegra Gibson. In Year 6 we thank Annabelle Wong, Jorja Matthews, Sabrina Ferrerosa Jurado, Pheodora Jayaseelan, Shanaya DSouza, Rose Dwyer and Annabelle Wong.

And some thoughts from our Shadow Judges about the initiative:

Shadow judging has been one of the best experiences of the year. I loved all the discussions and especially reading the books!
Annabelle Lai
Year 6

I loved how my opinion was taken into consideration and we could all debate.
Shanaya DSouza
Year 6

Shadow judging inspired me to read books that I had never even thought of reading. 
Sabrina Ferrerosa Jurado
Year 6

The shadow judging experience pulled us out of our comfort zones and into new genres, allowing us to discuss and express our views on such varying novels. It was immensely enjoyable and certainly helped us to develop a wider appreciation of reading.
Eve Ardagna
Year 10

Michael Moses, Melina Marchetta and Susan Lombardo
Teacher Librarians