Hundreds of Cobram and Strathmerton students have been eagerly turning the pages on books in the past months as part of the 2015 Premiers Reading Challenge. State Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes congratulated the 60 schools and 2471 students in northern Victoria who completed the challenge. Ms Symes said the challenge, now in its 11th year, asks all students in Years 3 to 10 to read 15 books or more by September 14. For students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 the challenge is to read or experience 30 books by September 14. Students from Cobram District Specialist, Cobram Anglican Grammar, Cobram Primary, Cobram Secondary, St Josephs Primary and Strathmerton Primary schools all took up the challenge to make reading a bigger part of their lives. Cobram Primary students Lauren Sneddon and Hameen Alrubayi said the challenge was a lot of fun and they had read a lot of interesting books. For the reading challenge, the teacher had to read books to us and we rated them out of 10 what we thought about them, Lauren said. We gave a 10 out of 10 for most of them, Hameen said. Lauren said the students helped choose the books their teacher would read with the class. Hameen said the group had read a number of books as a class, while students would also read other books at home. I read probably about 20 on my own and Ive been reading an AFL book, she said. I liked that we got to read a lot of books, Lauren said. Lauren said she enjoyed reading fiction and non-fiction books, while Hameen enjoyed fiction. I congratulate the 60 schools and particularly the 2471 students on their efforts so far and encourage them to keep reading, Ms Symes said. Its great to see students at these schools taking up the challenge with such vigour and enthusiasm. As a parent of two young children I know the importance of reading for them, it is an essential life skill and the challenge encourages students to discover the joys of reading and explore new concepts and ideas. Statewide, more than 204 100 participants from 2800 schools, early childhood settings and homes took up the challenge in 2015, reading nearly four million books. Students who complete the challenge will receive a signed certificate from Premier Daniel Andrews and former premiers. Caption Text: Books galore: Cobram Primary School students got their noses stuck in books for the 2015 Premiers Reading Challenge.