NSW Premier's Reading Challenge

Kindergarten to Year 9

The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) is not a competition but a challenge for each student to read, read more, and read more widely. The program involves nearly 400,000 students and more than 2,600 government, non-government and home schools. The PRC booklists open doors to a rich collection of children’s literature representing a range of books, including fiction, non-fiction, picture books, poetry and drama, and a wide variety of Australian authors.

Back to Literature and language arts

2024 dates

Opening date for student entries – Monday 26 February 2024
Closing date for student entries – Friday 23 August 2024
Closing date for coordinator validations – Friday 6 September 2024

An introduction to the PRC and interview and guided illustration with Sami Bayly

Duration: 1:31:30

Join Jade Arnold (Premier’s Program Officer, Reading and Spelling) and author/illustrator Sami Bayly for the digital launch of the 2024 PRC. This video is split into 4 distinct sections:

Chapter 1: An overview of the PRC rules for all ages – 1:33
Chapter 2: How to log books on the student experience site – 9:01
Chapter 3: Interview with Sami Bayly - 11:39
Chapter 4: A 60-minute guided illustration of elements of the 2024 PRC poster – 31:13

The guided illustration is suitable for secondary students and confident Stage 3 students. Younger students may be able to attempt individual sections of the guided illustration.

Video transcript – An introduction to the PRC and interview and guided illustration with Sami Bayly

Guided illustration competition (Public schools only)

Have your students take part in the 2024 guided illustation with Sami Bayly for your chance to win a signed copy of Sami Bayly’s upcoming third book in the How we came to be series (due for release in late September), along with other PRC titles and a print of Sami Bayly’s guided illustration artwork.

Have your students attempt part of or the entire guided illustration, then scan or take a photograph of your students' artworks and upload them using the online entry form.

Entries will be judged in two grade range categories:

Primary (Kindergarten – Year 6)
Secondary (Years 7 – 10)

Please read the terms and conditions of this competition before entering.

PRC Guided illustration terms and conditions (DOCX 309.32 KB)

Missed validation?

If you have a completed student reading record (SRR) from previous years that has not been validated, please email the PRC team ASAP with details of the records to be validated. If you have incomplete entries that require additional book entries and validation, you are required to complete the post-challenge validation process. This requires Principal application and authorisation.