“Read Strong Warrawong” is a project instigated by Warrawong Primary School in 2014 to address a drop in literacy levels by students in grades Kindergarten to Year 2 over the summer break.
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This is called the “summer slide”.
For some children, this can result in them being up to six months behind in reading by the time they leave primary school.
The project is based on many years of research and aims to provide each child with six books to read over the summer holidays.
A Book Fair is conducted in early December where the students get to select from a range of books.
They then keep the books and this not only helps them to retain their literacy levels but also to build a library of books in their home.
This year the project was able to demonstrate that 90 per cent of children returned to school at or above their 2016 literacy level.
For those in Kindergarten returning to Year 1, 30 of 32 children maintained or increased their reading level.
In Year 1 to Year 2, 16 per cent actually improved their reading levels just by reading over the holiday.
For those in Year 2 going into Year 3 in 2017, nearly half the students increased their reading level over the holidays and 45 per cent maintained their levels.
This result demonstrates that the longer the children are in the program, the better their ability to maintain the previous year’s reading level by reading in the long holidays.
The project is funded by the school undertaking fundraising activities during the school year and donations from the local community.
In 2015, and 2016 the Rotary Club of Dapto donated $1000 each year towards this very worthwhile project.
A Rotary District 9675 matching grant allowed more books to be bought as prizes for a continuing new book project.
For further information contact Rotarian Julie Collareda – email: jcollareda@gmail.com/ 0416120201
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