An update on the progress made in literacy of students was presented at yesterday's Rocky View School Board meeting. 

Two years ago R.J Hawkey partnered with Calgary Reads in hopes to revolutionize the way their students thought about reading. 

During their partnership with the program, the school made some significant changes. Not only did they create specific reading rooms that featured comfortable areas to read, they also introduced various activities and different takes on reading. The school introduced different events like flashlight Friday's where students gather with their books in the dark and use a flashlight to read them. The school has had multiple volunteers come in and read aloud to the students and even a live read performance from some of the children's favourite books. 

Assistant Principal for R.J Hawkey Lisa Guy said everyone contributes to the kids and it creates an amazing community. 

"We have times where parents are coming into the school anyways for something like a three-way conference where we also promote our reading at that time. We also give away lots of free books to families and it has been an ongoing initiative."

People donate books to R.J Hawkey for the program for use and the Calgary Reads organization also supplies the school with the books. It isn't just books and supplies that go into the program but also a lot of hard work from members of the school to keep the movement going. 

" We have our administrative team, our teachers and literacy teams all working together to build our own capacity and abilities in assisting children with their ability and joy of reading." 

In the 2016- 2017 year there were 1,474 volunteers that came into schools within the "Wee Read" program and read out loud to over three thousand students. 

 

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