Sacred Heart celebrate reading

Sacred Heart College decided to ‘drop everything and read’ at their Champagnat Day celebrations this year.

Champagnat Day is a celebration of the founder of the Marist Brothers schools, St Marcellin Champagnat, which takes place on 6 June every year. This year the school spent two hours supporting the Drop Everything and Read initiative which aims to promote reading to people of all ages as part of their celebrations on 7 June.

A spokesperson for the college Lynn Walker said, “The idea was conceived in response to a particular challenge, where the school and the parents were trying to encourage and motivate our children to read more. Invitations were sent to the parents and alumni communities of the school requesting readers, writers, poets, authors, journalists and anyone with a passion for reading, to offer to read to our learners.

“The invitation was met with a hugely supportive, very enthusiastic, and overwhelming response. The day turned out to be a beautiful, balmy Joburg day, and an inspiring couple of hours in the outdoors for the learners with parents, grandparents, aunts, and people associated with our school reading to our children.”

The school also had alumnus and author Jarred Thompson and acclaimed author and parent Achmat Dangor attend the event. The writers engaged with senior high school children and encouraged them to write while reading pieces from their recent works out loud to the students. Walker added, “Achmat Dangor got the learners discussing the prologue from his recent book Dikeledi and Jarred chose some contrasting poems.

“The Sacred Heart spirit was very much alive and thriving at this event, and it reverberated throughout the day and afterward with emails of thanks and gratitude for being part of such a special event.”

Details: www.sacredheart.co.za

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