Students with reading challenges get help

Recognising that there are a number of students who struggle with their reading, the Principal of the St. Giles Primary School, Dr. Sonja Anderson, plans to implement a number of activities to assist them with developing fluent reading skills.

The Principal made that comment following the showcase event that took place in the school’s hall last Friday.

“The number of students who are challenged in reading is a small percentage in every age group and that adds up to too many. In other words, if we have 56 students in an age group, you would find 15 of them have a challenge and that’s across three classes. So what we’re doing is getting a remedial teacher who pulls them out and develops those skills. So hopefully, with the help of the parents, we can tackle the students who have a problem reading,” she said.

“We also plan to have each staff member in the school, including me, to adopt one child who is greatly challenged with reading and we spend 15 to 20 minutes with the child each lunchtime everyday to help the child develop their reading skills. This is our Mentoring a Child in Reading programme. And when we finish, we hope that every student in St. Giles Primary School is fluent in reading.”

In addition to this, Anderson told the media that they also had a pullout system where they were continuing to develop their reading skills of the children where they worked with the class teacher and a remedial teacher.

The Principal revealed that they also had persons from The Variety Club and from the Old Scholars Association who were willing to come into the school and help students with their reading skills. She added that just after lunch everyday, they also challenge the students to sit and read for 15 minutes.

“So really, the students are getting help with their reading skills from every angle because our aim is to have a whole school of readers, and have every child in St. Giles School to become a fluent reader,” she said.