West Terrace Primary wild about reading

THE students of West Terrace Primary were whipped into a frenzy recently as the school officially started a month of literacy activities.

Dressed in their bright T-shirts, students carried placards, posters, headpieces and even masks in celebration of the various aspects of reading, and they chanted: “Read, Learn, Achieve!”

Principal Beverley Burrowes explained that while the school is generally known for excellence in sporting activities with the West Terrace Tigers, it was decided to place the same energy into literacy, recognising that there is not that objective achievement in terms of creative writing and other areas.

According to Burrowes, “Literacy remains one of the main goals of education and the school is charged with the responsibility of creating literate students who can read, write and comprehend. Hence, one can deduce that no skill is more crucial to the future of a child, and ultimately society, than literacy. It can therefore be considered as the bedrock of education.

“With the new technology, cell phones, tablets, they are useful but we find sometimes that the children use them not for the objectives that we would like, so that a lot of language is lost. I think this month we would be able to recapture the interest with areas like poetry, dramatisation and story-telling,” she said.

During the month, the students will participate in book donations and book sales with persons coming in to read stories to the students.

“We at the West Terrace Primary School are making every effort during the month of May to sensitise and motivate our students about the value of reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary and other aspects of literacy,” Burrowes said. (JH)