Huyton primary school presented prestigious reading award

St Aidan’s Catholic Primary School in Huyton, has recently been awarded a Reading Recovery Learning Award by the Institute of Education, to celebrate outstanding contributions to children’s reading.

The Reading Recovery Learning Award celebrates the 25 year achievement from the Institute of Education. The programme helps hundreds of children across the UK overcome their complex literacy issues and teaches them to read.

The prestigious award was presented on Friday June 26 during a ceremony at Logan Hall, The Institute of Education in London.

The award was presented to the school by Professor Michael Arthur, representative from the University College of London.

The award ceremony provided afternoon tea and a children’s comedian also entertained. Julia Douëtil, head of the International Literacy Centre and National Leader for Reading Recovery Intervention was also in attendance.

The reading award acknowledges all the school does and provides to support reading. St Aidan’s offers schemes such as interventions, paired reading and reading afternoons with parents to promote reading. They have also taken several unique approaches such as ‘reading for pizza’ and even ‘bedtime’ reading sessions, where everyone comes to school in their pyjamas and reads together.

Headteacher Moira Kenneway was accompanied to London by Reading Recovery Teacher, Mrs Maria Cooper and two very lucky pupils, Thomas and Brandon Jardine. Both students have successfully completed and greatly benefitted from the Reading Recovery programme.

In addition to receiving their award, the group were also lucky enough to explore London for the day. They visited Buckingham Palace and witnessed the changing of the guards. They also went to see the Big Ben, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square and the British Museum.

According to recent statistics, 1 in 4 children are still unable to read by the time they leave primary school and only 40% of ten year olds across England have a positive attitude towards reading.

Reading is one of the most important aspects of a child’s cognitive development and growth, and yet only 1 in 5 of parents makes time to read to their children. It is vital that children are exposed to and motivated to read from an early age.

Schemes such as Reading Recovery are becoming increasingly popular and much more common in schools across the UK.

Hopefully, St Aidan’s have set an example and encourage other schools to promote reading and literacy skills. Well done St Aidan’s!

By Molly Page