National Simultaneous Storytime 2022

It’s that time of year again!

Now in its 22nd year in Australia, and 5th year in New Zealand, National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is an opportunity to promote the value of reading and literacy in primary schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes and bookshops. NSS will start at 11am, on Wednesday the 25th of May. 

Run by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), the NSS showcases a picture book written and illustrated by Australians, based on age-appropriate themes, and addressing KLAs.

We are excited about this year’s selected book, Family Tree, written by Australian singer and songwriter Josh Pyke and beautifully illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh. To learn more about the book, click here. 

This year, NSS is joined by special guest readers including author Josh Pyke, Gabrielle Wang, Governor-General David Hurley, and Mrs Hurley. 

The Australian Library and Information Association have created a number of resources that are available to support your NSS event. 

Resources include:

• Teacher notes and activities
• Mazes, memory cards and puzzles
• Family tree art activities
• And more!

You can register to participate here.

How do you celebrate National Simultaneous Storytime?

In 2019, Margaret Simkin wrote a guest blog sharing how they spent NSS at The Hamilton and Alexandra.

As an Early Learning to Year 12 school, they aim to participate annually and involve students across both campuses in the celebration. In 2019, students travelled between campuses to share Hickory Dickory Dash, pairing older students with younger students. 12 students even headed to the Birches Aged Care Facility to share the book with residents, which was very well received.

With almost 100% of the junior school and 32% of the total student body participating, NSS was an absolute success at The Hamilton and Alexandra College, not just in promoting reading, but also in building community and strengthening inter-generational relationships. To read the full blog post, click here.

We’d love to hear your stories! 

How do you celebrate NSS in your school? We’d love to hear your story!

Perhaps you would like to feature as a guest blogger on our website? Maybe you would simply like to share some photos of your library display or other pictures from the day.  

Email communications@softlinkint.com to share your story.