San Ġwann primary literacyweek

For the second year running, St Clare College's St Bernadette Primary B School, San Ġwann, organised a week-long programme of activities to promote literacy in preparation for World Book Day this Wednesday, involving pupils, their parents and grandparents.

Throughout the week, reading sessions were held and on certain days all classes stopped for 15 minutes to enable pupils to read for leisure. Pupils also studied lists of words and participated in class Spellathon and Super Spelling Bee competitions, leading to a grand final in the school hall where finalists spelt out the words on stage and the various year group winners were proclaimed to a thunder of applause.

During the Easter holidays, pupils produced books, wrote summaries of books they read, made models of book characters, and wrote poems, and one class conducted research about local watch towers, including a site visit to Wignacourt Tower, St Paul's Bay.

Meanwhile, parents were invited to a hands-on activity about reading techniques and strategies to entice children to read more, conducted by literacy support teachers Maria Sammut and Jennifer Borg and later visited an exhibition promoting literacy activities set up in the school's foyer.

Exhibits included snappy facts about various topics, word games and puzzles and riddles. Grandparents were also invited to the school to recite stories and speak about their old school days.

The programme was themed 'Together we grow: wiser by reading!' and sponsored by Merlin Library and the Environmental Landscape Consortium Ltd.