Below, from left: By Sarah Schwager
NOBLE Park Primary School students have been reading story books to their kindergarten peers as part of National Literacy and Numeracy Week this week.
Noble Park Primary School principal David Rothstadt said the Noble Park Kindergarten children had been very enthusiastic about having the grade five students read to them.
“The grade five children just thought it was fantastic to see how engaged the little kids were in the stories,” Mr Rothstadt said.
He said the school decided to focus on literacy during Literacy and Numeracy Week as it was a great opportunity for the primary school students to share some of their favourite picture books with the kindergarten children.
Mr Rothstadt said older children working with younger children had many benefits.
“There are very good spinoffs for both raising self esteem of the older kids and building relationships for the younger kids,” he said.
He said this experience put the grade fives in a teaching role, giving them an understanding of how difficult it was to teach and allowing them to reflect on their own learning.
Mr Rothstadt said the school also ran a program in which year nine students from Noble Park Secondary College worked with grade six students.
He said both programs helped the younger students to make an easier transition to their next level of schooling.
“This is where they are aspiring to be in the near future,” Mr Rothstadt said.
“They will have someone, at least, that they know in the yard.
“Literacy Week is also a time to highlight how important language development is at a young age and how attendance at kindergarten can smooth that process.”
Mr Rothstadt said that earlier in the year the future grade preps visited the school to work with the grade fives in the computer lab.
