Riccarton wins Year 9 Readers Cup!

Congratulations to George Grundy, Michael Lu, Lara Stevens and Sam Dowrick, all from 9HY, who took out the annual Year 9 Readers Cup at Tūranga.

Students from High Schools all over Christchurch competed in the Readers Cup competition.  Each team had to read six books and were then quizzed on how well they knew the books.  Well done Riccarton for winning!
It is well known that there is a significant drop off with reading when students move from intermediate to high school.  At primary and intermediate school they have the ever-popular 'Kids Lit Quiz' but up until a couple of years ago, there has been nothing at a secondary school level.  As one Librarian said of the night "Readers Cup is fun for the students and it gives them lifelong skills to help in their education and beyond.  The teamwork, the camaraderie, the joy of competing in an area you have a great passion for - these are things all of the teams will take away with them".   It might be interesting to know that there were only three boys in the competition, and two of them were in the Riccarton team.

A new initiative:

A new pen pal initiative has started in Christchurch with contact being made between individual children and young people from the resettlement program and Christchurch, via letters.  Riccarton High School International Peer Support Managers, Sahiti Pedisetti and Andrei Binobo, are helping with the letters to teenagers. The first batch of lovely handwritten letters and cards were sent off to the Resettlement Centre in Auckland, this month. 

Pizza and Book Club:

 The two are always a winning combination. This year, Riccarton students from Years 9 and 10 can take part in the Hell's Pizza Reading Challenge and get free pizza.  All you have to do is read seven books and you can get a free pizza - how easy is that?!  Book Club students decided to combine their free pizzas and have them at Book Club this term.  The Reading Challenge runs all year, so if you haven't picked up a pizza wheel yet, just pop in and see Ms Blake or Miss Howie in the Library.

Photographic Exhibition:

The Library will host a second photographic exhibition celebrating the history of the iconic Christchurch Chinese restaurant Chung Wah. The exhibition will run from the 21st September to 12th October 2019.   Here is a blog about the first exhibition.  The Chung Wah Restaurant was the biggest Chinese restaurant in New Zealand in 1984.  It had expanded from Shanghai Café, to Chung Wah I and then to Chung Wah II in twenty years.  Here is some history about the restaurant.
The Library website has a wealth of information about other famous Christchurch places.