On Monday evening last week, the dream of creating a reading and media centre at St Mary’s Primary School in Albany Road took a step closer to becoming a reality.
On Monday evening last week, the dream of creating a reading and media centre at St Mary’s Primary School in Albany Road took a step closer to becoming a reality. The Interact Club at Kingswood College donated R20 000 towards the expansion of the current small reading room which is located next to the school, in the same house as the Grade R classroom.
Currently this reading room is where three volunteers from Project Read are to be found most mornings, each working with two children as part of the Lebone Centre’s literacy outreach programme. Space does not allow for more than the tables and chairs that house these little groups, along with a couple of shelves of old book stock.
With the aid of this donation, the room can now be enlarged to double its size, as the wall to the adjacent garage will be broken down and new windows, ceilings, flooring etc will be put in. In due course, as additional funding is raised, new shelving will be put up, attractive furnishings put in and new books put on the shelves. The aim is also to install a computer that will enable the learners to do research for their school projects.
St Mary’s principal Gerard Jacobs and Lebone Literacy Programme co-ordinator Cathy Gush were both present at the Kingswood Interact Dinner to receive the donation. They expressed their thanks to the pupils for supporting a cause that began small but can now start to make a significant contribution to the literacy and language development of the St Mary’s pupils. It is hoped that the renovations will be complete early in the new year.
