Press Gang On Assignment: Andy Griffiths’ Laureate Launch

On Tuesday, 24th February, students from Putney PS were on their way to the city on a ferry. The water beneath them, and waves upon waves, the engine roared as they embarked on a new adventure.

Samara, Irene and Yash, along with eleven other Press Gang reporters from all over Sydney to host the very first Press Gang red carpet at the official launch of the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2026-2027: Andy Griffiths. 

Read on to find out more about the day in first-hand reports from our Putney PS reporters.

Recently, reporters from Putney Press Gang were On Assignment at the Childrens’ Laureate launch. It was such an exciting experience! We got the chance to act like real reporters and interview famous authors and the people who help make their books. 

One of the best parts of the day was interviewing Andy Griffiths. He is a very popular Australian author and writes super funny books for kids. He told us about his new book Let’s Go and explained how he comes up with his crazy and creative ideas. It was amazing to hear how a story goes from an idea in his head to a real book.

We were in the audience for the live stream of the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation event. Approximately 6,000 people watched it live, which shows how important reading and books are to kids all around Australia.

We interviewed other people in Andy’s team too, including his editor and the illustrator Bill Hope, who is illustrating Let’s Go. He told us how pictures help make the story even more fun and bring the characters to life. Another really cool moment was when I was recorded by the A Current Affair crew while reporting at the event. It made me feel like a real news reporter!

Samara, Irene and I were proud to represent our school. Press Gang at the Children’s Laureate launch was an unforgettable experience and made me even more excited about reading and writing.

Samara, Yash and I were on the way to meet Andy Griffith. We were buzzing with excitement as we knew this was a fantastic opportunity to grow our reporter interviewing skills. We were especially excited to interview Andy Griffith.

When we arrived at the City we walked to the State Library where we were met by our teachers Meredith and Cat. Other schools from over Sydney came to this interview; altogether, there were 14 reporters.

As we made our way downstairs my heart was thumping in exhilaration. A red carpet was set up with a couch where we would be doing Andy’s interview. We prepared some of our questions.

When he finally came, we started rolling. We got a lot of interesting facts we didn’t know so that was really fun to learn more of the truth behind the famous Andy. It was a short time but it was filled with curiosity and imagination.

We also got to interview some other famous authors. These are some people I interviewed: Tim Harris who wrote Rat Bags, Pip Harry who wrote August and Jones, Matt Cosgrove who wrote Macca the Alpaca. The day was truly magical to me. I hope I can experience something like that again. 

Hi, I’m Samara and this term me, Irene and Yash went to the official launch of the Children’s Laureate.

For me, the Children’s Laureate Launch was an amazing experience, I got to interview Andy Griffiths and other amazing authors on the red carpet at the State Library. I also met other Press Gang reporters from other schools, I got to work with them interviewing Andy and other authors.

My team and I got to interview the state librarian, Pip Harry, Matt Cosgrove and Tim Harris, you may have heard some of them from their books. Pip Harry wrote August & Jones, Matt Cosgrove wrote Macca the Alpaca and Tim Harris wrote Exploding Endings, Remarkables and more.

I want to thank Meredith and Cat for organising this; and Mrs Brooks and Mrs Talevski for bringing us. Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I’d love to do it again.