2025 Premier's Reading Challenge
Welcome to the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge
The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 10, in government, independent, Catholic and home schools. If you need help using the website and the answer cannot be found on the PRC Support site, please contact us at prc@det.nsw.edu.au
2025 PRC Certificates are now available to download.
Instructions on how to download standard Challenge certificates can be found in this article on our support site. Students missing from the standard Challenge certificate report are likely eligible for a Gold or Platinum certificate - refer to Which students are eligible for a milestone award? for more information.
Gold and Platinum certificates and PRC medals are posted to schools. All packages will be lodged on Monday 17 November.
This year we are trialling the use of eParcel Tracking Labels to automate the process of notifying schools of their tracking number, meaning your tracking information will be emailed to you once the school's package has been lodged with Australia Post.
Public schools: Your tracking email will be sent to your school administrative email address.
Non-Government schools: Your tracking email will be sent to your school administrative email address if this is publicly listed. Otherwise, it will be sent to the principal or library email (if these emails are listed as PRC coordinators), or the first coordinator listed in our database.
All certificate packages are addressed to the school Principal, so we recommend notifying your front office staff to keep an eye out for this package.
View the 2025 PRC report!
A record 441,462 students participated in the PRC this year. View our detailed breakdown, including the most read books of all time and recently published titles, in our 2025 PRC Report!
The 2025 PRC is now closed to student and coordinator entries.
Coordinators are no longer able to view, add to, or validate student reading records.
Please refer to How do I see who has completed the PRC now the Challenge is closed? if you are unsure if a student has a valdiated readong record.
- If you have a complete but not validated reading record: Please email the PRC team with any student names. The PRC team will validate these reading records on your behalf.
- If you have an incomplete student reading record: Your principal will need to complete a post-challenge validation application which can be found here.
2026 Dates
Challenge opens: Monday 23 February 2026
Challenge closes to students: To be confirmed in December
Challenge closes to coordinators: To be confirmed in December
Coordinator survey:
Help us shape the future of the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge by completing the 2025 Coordinator survey.
Term 3 Booklist update
The Term 3 2025 booklist is now live! 220 new books have been added to the booklists. Click on the image below, or visit the booklists page to check out the new titles added to the PRC booklists this year!
Stay up-to-date with the PRC newsletter
Please refer to your relevant sector's coordinator newsletter for more information:
Non-government schools newsletter
Public schools newsletter
Non-government student password reset.
All non-government student passwords were reset ahead of the 2025 Challenge opening to enable the rollout of a new password tool for non-government coordinators. Please view this support article for instructions on accessing student passwords. Coordinators will now be able to download student password files until the PRC closes to students on Friday 19 September. If you are experiencing issues accessing your password files, please contact the PRC team.
If you are non-government student who participates independently or a homeschooled student, your password has also been reset. Please contact the PRC team for your new password.
Matt Ottleys music & composer notes
Artist, author and composer Matt Ottley, who created the artwork for the 2025 PRC poster, also composed a piece of music titled to accompany the artwork, titled Dance of the jellyfish. This composition is part of Matt Ottley's Sound of picture books initiative, which is designed to allow audiences to experience literature, art and music linked in a multimodal manner.
Matt Ottley has also generously provided detailed resource notes that unpack the artwork and music. Visit our Tips and Teaching notes page to download these resource notes.
2025 Sydney Writer's Festival Author Talks
Head backstage with students from Caddies Creek Public School and Glenwood High School as they interview authors that feature on the PRC booklists! View these talks for free any time on The Arts Unit website. Pair each interview with our downloadable resource kit, packed with engaging activities to spark reflection, creativity and help students discover their next great read.
The 2025 NSW Premier's Reading Challenge is proudly supported by Digital Partner, ePlatform and Supporter, Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).