Congratulations to seven pupils attending St. Anne’s Primary School, Charle-ville, who have each read over a million words from novels in just four months!
These star pupils are closely followed by several more pupils who have each read hundreds of thousands of words in the past few months as part of the school’s current reading initiatives.
While the school has always had pupils who were avid readers, teachers now have evidence of the level of the pupils’ reading.
The Board of Management has recently invested in an Accelerated Reading Pro-gramme. This encourages pupils to take online quiz-zes on virtually all children’s literature and gives teachers instant information on how pupils are progressing. Pupils have access to individual laptops and this coupled with an investment in modern, up-to-date library books has meant a huge surge in reading amongst school pupils. The Parents Association and also the School Book Fair have been invaluable.
And what are the pupils in St. Anne’s reading?
Books by authors Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Judi Curtin, Louis Sachar, Jeff Kinney and David Walliams are fav-ourites in senior classes. In lower classes Roald Dahl, Jill Murphy and Enid Blyton are currently the most popular.
“Reading is a gift for life” so whoever the author, St. Anne’s girls have the gift!