Umhloti Primary School nurtures young readers with reading corners

Six new reading corners created two weeks ago in the foundation phase classes at Umhloti Primary School are already paying dividends.

“It has proven to be an incentive for the pupils to finish their work quickly so they can go and read.

It has reduced mischief in class and the content of some of the books are teaching the pupils morals too,” said the school’s foundation phase head, Saime Absar.

A Christmas collection drive undertaken by Olive Tree Church in Umdloti saw donations of more than 1 000 books, six brand new varnished bookshelves and six new mats to create a reading corner in the six grades 1, 2 and 3 classes.

There are currently about 100 books in each classroom and the remaining 400 books that are appropriate for more advanced readers will be distributed to the senior primary school.

Jacqui Haddow is a qualified teacher who supplements the school’s reading programme through a privately funded initiative called Read and Learn.

Through the initiative she implements a reading programme called Read for Africa which has been extensively used in Diepsloot, Johannesburg.

Haddow said most of the children she worked with had no exposure to books at home. Before the reading corners were established, some of the children had never held or read a book before.

he said the exposure gained in the school’s new reading corners has ignited a love for books and an interest in reading.

She highlighted the significance of this development, citing results of a recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) that revealed as many as 80% of Grade 4 pupils in South Africa could not read for meaning.

According to their website, PIRLS provided internationally comparative data on how well children read and offered policy-relevant information for improving learning and teaching.

Well aware of the difference between knowing how to read and understanding what you read, Absar said she was using the reading corners to develop her pupils’ comprehension skills by asking then random questions about the books they have read.

“These reading corners are such a blessing to us. We can’t thank Olive Tree Church enough for this,” she said.

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