On the 27th March Glen Innes School ran a Literacy Training day at their school and invited teachers from all of the Schools in the area.
A recent study conducted in the area suggested that when children start school at 5 years of age, some have a learning age between 2 and 3 years of age.
On hearing this we sought funding to supply books for children under 5, and then fund a training day for teachers by experts in this field.
We first approached Jill Eggleton. Jill is a NZ children’s book author, teacher and education consultant. She received the Margaret Mahy Award in 2015 for Everyone Has A Story. She has authored over 800 books. She was appointment Companion of the Queen’s Service Order (CSO) in the 2010 New Years Honours list “for services to education and literacy”.
When we approached her to support this initiative by Breakfast Club she immediately agreed and offered her services at no charge.
We also asked another children’s author Heather Haylock, who authored the Granny McFlitter series. Heather agreed on the spot to being part of this training to teachers without hesitation.
Once we had the speakers arranged we approached the Ted Manson Foundation for fund this training for 12 months. We wanted to invite 20 teachers and gift them with books from the speakers and also supply a catered lunch at no cost to the delegates. We did not want costs to be a factor in teachers not being able to attend.
The Literacy Training day was incredible. Both of the speakers are wanting to be part of future training days and so far all of the delegates want to return to the second training day on the 29th of May.
At the second Literacy Day Jill will return along side the author and illustrator Donovan Bixley.
