At Melpark Primary school in Melville, the cool kids spend their break-time burying their noses in books.
“Here at Melpark reading is king. We really motivate children to read,” the school principal Nalini Padayachee said on Monday.
“All in all, each child in school reads about 50 books a year. In fact, for some of our older students it’s become very fashionable to walk around reading.”
The school has a number of reading programmes. “Firstly, we’ve got mini-libraries in every classroom so that children can peruse books whenever they want to,” Padayachee explained.
“We also have an exclusive reading period once a week, and the whole school participates in that and reads for that half hour.”
Padayachee’s favourite reading programme has to be the principal’s book club. “Twelve children are selected to join me every week, and then we have tea and cake in my office. We discuss books. I get to know them all, we tackle life skills. If the young ones are there we might even dance the Waka Waka. The kids are so well behaved at the book club meetings – they’re very dignified.”
It doesn’t end there. “Then there’s Battle of the Books, an interschool reading quiz organised by South African Libraries. We’re taking part in that too. We also have volunteer readers who come to school and read to the children. People donate books, and our pupils devour them.”
All this reading has had an effect. “We’ve seen tremendous improvement in their reading, and other grades improve dramatically as well,” Padayachee beamed.
“The school is strong academically, and I think our emphasis on reading has a lot to do with that.”
She looked pensive. “I think the community see the taxis outside the school and think that the education here is compromised. I’ve got news for them, other schools don’t come close to us. Our grades are top notch. We’re even good at sport. Last week we played soccer against a private school and we walloped them. We very seldom lose a match.”
She implored people in the area to come and see what the school is really about.
Go and check out Melpark Primary’s new website to learn more about the school at www.melparkprimary.co.za.
