SHOCKED BY the poor levels of literacy in disadvantaged schools, Dr Eithne Kennedy, of St Patrick’s College, Dublin, set about researching a way to improve how literacy is taught in these areas.
Her research led to the creation of a new programme entitled “Write to Read” which, when piloted in a junior national school in Darndale, Dublin, led to impressive results. Yesterday, broadcaster Ryan Tubridy was on hand to launch the expansion of the project to eight new schools.
The project interacts with the children directly to better teach literacy skills. It also provides further training for teachers and community workers to help them continue the children’s learning. Through local fundraising, it aims to “flood the schools with books” to encourage more casual reading.
The original pilot project in Our Lady Immaculate Junior National School helped to reduce by 75 per cent the number of children performing below the 10th percentile on a standardised reading test.
It also increased to 20 per cent the number performing above the 80th percentile. The average for schools in disadvantaged areas is 6.2 per cent.
“I was kind of shocked by the literacy achievement of children from disadvantaged schools compared to those from a more privileged background so I took it on to see what could we do,” said Dr Kennedy.
She said the project emphasised a “pooling of resources” between colleges, schools and communities.
It differed from many other literacy programmes by going into schools and seeing first-hand the specific problems that an individual teacher faced before developing a literacy programme for them.
One of the eight new schools taking part in the programme, which will run until June 2013, is Our Lady of the Wayside National School in Inchicore.
Its principal, Anne McCluskey, said that literacy was a major issue for many schools in disadvantaged areas.
“It can be difficult because maybe children have very young parents who might have had bad experiences at school themselves,” she said.
“In order to break the cycle I think it is very important that there are high levels of literacy in schools in disadvantaged areas.”
Ms McCluskey said the project will give enhanced confidence to the school to tackle literacy as well as extra resources in terms of books and personnel.
“The children are very enthusiastic already and very positive about it, so it gives us all a bit of confidence and energy.
“Just even the act of fundraising for books for the school will give us a big boost at this time when our resources are being cut back,” she said.