The 10th annual Castlemaine Mail/DON KR Castlemaine Newshounds awards were held at the Castlemaine Library foyer on December 12.
With the generous support of DON KR Castlemaine the Castlemaine Mail featured 13 Newshounds pages created by student Newshounds teams from schools across Mount Alexander Shire in 2025.
Friday’s awards celebrated the achievements of each school and culminated with the announcement of ‘Best Overall News Coverage’ and ‘People’s Choice Award’ – voted on by visitors to the Newshounds display in the library.
The awards were presented by Mail manager Lynda Brew, DON Smallgoods representative Helen Shaw and our newspaper’s mascot Elliott Newshound.
Journalist Jade Jungwirth was MC for the event and thanked DON KR for their sponsorship support, all the teachers and students for their incredible efforts creating the pages, and Mail production team member Megan Beckerley for bringing the pages to life.
“It’s great to have an insight into what’s been happening in each school, what makes each school unique, and to hear the student voice shine through,” she said.
DON Program Manager and DON Caring Every Day Team Lead, Helen Shaw said the company was extremely proud to have supported the initiative since its inception.
“It’s wonderful to see the finished pages and share them with our staff. It’s fantastic to hear what’s happening at our local schools, we laughed, we almost cried there were some great stories,” Helen said.
The Mail would like to acknowledge all the schools on a fabulous effort and celebrate our 2025 award winners which were as follows:
Best Sustainability Feature – Langley Primary School for ‘Braving the winter chill for our future’.
Best Student Voice Piece – Taradale Primary School for ‘Beyond Words’ by Anais Lyons.
Best Feature Story – Castlemaine North Primary School for ‘Neurodiversity Celebration Day’.
Best Vox Pop – St Mary’s Primary School for ‘Student Interviews’ on their favourite thing was about St Mary’s.
Best Wellbeing Story – Maldon Primary School for ‘Positive behaviour and wellbeing drive success at Maldon Primary’.
Best Sport Story – Campbells Creek Primary School including Guildford Campus for ‘AFL Clinic’.
Best News Content – Elphinstone Primary School.
Best Creative Arts Story – Castlemaine Steiner School & Kindergarten for ‘Art and Maths Together’.
Best Overall Design – Harcourt Valley Primary School.
Best Headline – Newstead Primary School for ‘Let the ghoul times roll!’.
Most Diverse Content – Winters Flat Primary School.
Best Outdoor Ed Piece – Castlemaine Primary School for ‘Dive into our Don Bosco Camp experience!’
Best Feature Photograph – Chewton Primary School for ‘National Tree Planting Day’.
In the Castlemaine Mail Newshounds Best Overall News Coverage category third place went to Castlemaine North Primary School. This was an incredible entry. Lots to read and pieces which represent all year levels. Well done Castlemaine North!
Second Place (runner-up) went to Harcourt Valley Primary School. Harcourt Valley packed a lot of apples into their basket! With stories about the Core Points and Core Store, biodiversity project, GaGa Pit and even a Vox Pop.
The Overall Winner was Langley Primary School. The judges were impressed with Langley’s page from first glance. It featured fantastic colourful imagery and interesting and informative reads which really captured school life. Well done Langley!
Finally, the People’s Choice Award – as voted by the public at the display at the Castlemaine Library – went to Winters Flat Primary School.
Congratulations to all our award winners. You can still view the pages which are currently on display at the entrance to the Castlemaine Library. We look forward to continuing the program in 2026!