Today we celebrated World Book Day in St. Attracta’s. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our love of books and reading. As you can see from our 3rd and 4th Class Picture exciting activities took place in all our classes.Here Mr. Rushe’s Class are proudly displaying their Book Reports of the favourite books.

Reading for pleasure is a very hot topic on the literacy agenda, as it not only creates a love of reading in young people, but also make a huge contribution to their educational attainment

A recent British Study into the role of reading found that …

• Children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better at school than their peers.
• Children who are read to regularly by their parents at age 5 perform better in tests age 16 than those who were not.
• Reading for pleasure has the strongest effect on Children’s Vocabularly Development , but the impact on spelling and maths is also significant.
• Children who read for pleasure make more progress in Maths, Vocabularly and Spelling between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read.

(Institute of Education 2013)

Please find below ways that you can help your child improve their reading.

Ten Tips to Help your Child’s Reading At Home.

1.Choose a Quiet Time:Set aside a quiet time with no distractions. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually long enough.

2.Make Reading More Enjoyable:Make reading an enjoyable experience. Sit with your child. Try not to pressurise if he or she is reluctant. If your child loses interest then do something else.

3.Maintain the Flow:If your child mispronounces a word do not interrupt immediately. Instead allow opportunity for self-correction. It is better to tell a child some unknown words to maintain the flow rather than insisting on trying to build them all up from the sounds of the letters. If your child does try to ‘sound out’ words, encourage the use of letter sounds rather than ‘alphabet names’.

4.Be Positive:If your child says something nearly right to start with that is fine. Don’t say ‘No. That’s wrong,’ but ‘Let’s read it together’ and point to the words as you say them. Boost your child’s confidence with constant praise for even the smallest achievement.

5.Success is the Key:Parents anxious for a child to progress can mistakenly give a child a book that is too difficult. This can have the opposite effect to the one they are wanting. Remember ‘Nothing succeeds like success’. Until your child has built up his or her confidence, it is better to keep to easier books. Struggling with a book with many unknown words is pointless. Flow is lost, text cannot be understood and children can easily become reluctant readers.

6.Visit the Library:Encourage your child to use the public library regularly.

7.Regular Practice:Try to read with your child on most school days. ‘Little and often’ is best. Teachers have limited time to help your child with reading.

8.Communicate:Your child will most likely have a reading diary from school. Try to communicate regularly with positive comments and any concerns. Your child will then know that you are interested in their progress and that you value reading.

9.Talk about Books:There is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately. Just as important is being able to understand what has been read. Always talk to your child about the book; about the pictures, the characters, how they think the story will end, their favourite part. You will then be able to see how well they have understood and you will help them to develop good comprehension skills.

10.Variety is Important:Remember children need to experience a variety of reading materials eg. picture books, hard backs, comics, magazines, poems, and information books.

Junior and Senior Infants have been working very hard in recent times with the ‘Aistear’ programme. Aistear is the Irish word for journey. This initiative marks the beginning of the children’s lifelong journey of development. Through rich and varied play experiences the children develop a strong sense of well being. Through this framework, we here in St. Attracta’s hope to inspire confident and competent communicators, curious explorers and creative thinkers.

Well done to all the boys and girls for all their hard work, Ms Delaney and Ms. Connaghan are delighted with their progress!

There was great excitement on Tuesday afternoon with the visit of the storyteller Niall de Búrca.

Niall is one of Ireland’s finest traditional storytellers. He was raised in Galway and displayed a talent for narrative from a young age. He is recognised for the diversity of his stories and an ability to  reach all ages.

It was wonderful for our students to see and enjoy this tradition especially  in an age of so much electronic entertainment. All classes were captivated by Niall’s tales enjoying their afternoon thoroughly!

A special word of thanks to our Parents’ Association who sponsored this event from their recent fundraising efforts. As always we sincerely appreciate this support.

The  “Helena McDonagh Writing Competition” will be open to entries from Monday next. This annual event is very much a favourite in our students’ calendar.

Mrs. Helena McDonagh taught in St. Attracta’s  for many years before retiring in 2003. As a legacy to creative writing in the primary school and as a published author herself, Helena presented the school with a perpetual trophy to be used as we saw fit.

So the “Storybox” competition began. Every year the story box is placed in the corridor for a specific length of time. The children are encouraged to write stories and submit them. They can enter up to five stories and a winner is selected and awarded at the end of the school year.

Last year’s winner was Ailbhe O’Connor who is now in First Year in St. Attracta’s Community School Tubbercurry.

Helena recently visited our school to read her latest book “Pete and Tweet to the Rescue”  to our Junior and Senior Infants and First Class children. We hope she will return for World Book Week later this term. We greatly appreciate her continued interest in our school.