Cypress Primary School was excited to launch its new foundation phase library last week.
The library was sponsored by non-profit organisation Living Through Learning, based in Wynberg, and Coronation, a company which which prioritises feeding and learning resources in the Western Cape. The launch took place at the Bridgetown school on Thursday April 20, to celebrate World Book Day.
Managing director at Living Through Learning, Sonja Botha, said that they chose Cypress Primary School because children at the school were disadvantaged in many ways including, discipline, resources, and support at home. She said that the company tried to instil the encourage pupils to become their own person by growing self-confidence and being more assertive.
“The earlier you develop confidence the better for you. If you can read and write you will make it in life. The children at the schools we’ve helped really struggle academically, socially, and with their literacy, so we are trying a holistic approach,” she said.
Natalie Roos, executive director of Living Through Learning, said that the NPO wanted to encourage a love for reading amongst pupils and wanted them to fall in love with their reading space. She said that so far the NPO stocked 74 libraries since 2018 which impacted 3 000 pupils. She said that it was an important resource in class for both pupils and teaches.
“This is there happy place to go and read, just here in their class, not too far. So far it has made a big difference,” she said.
Pupils opened the curtains along the book shelves and discovered all the different colourful books. They also did an activity where they had to find a hidden book in the class library. Each pupil got a book to take home in a gift bag.
Principal Marsha van der Rheede said the library meant a lot to the school because they had the grounds for a library but no money to resource it. She said that the library was only for foundation phase pupil and the school had been trying to source a sponsor for a library for the rest of the school. She said pupils weren’t interested in going to the public library because they had to walk far.
She said children nowadays are exposed to too much technology and are not being taught the basics of literacy at home, so they lacked reading comprehension.
Ms Van Der Rheede said that the library meant having a safe and creative space to develop pupils to become independent readers.
“My wish is that they become fond of reading again. They need to improve in spelling and discover a love for books and reading. I encourage parents to read to their kids for at least 20 minutes a day which make the kids good readers and improve their spelling. Some parents work and some can’t read but they must make time for reading and encourage their children to enjoy reading,” she said.
Chairwoman of the Coronation board, Alex Watson, said that early childhood education was so important for the development of children and that many children’s reading skills were impacted because of the Covid-19 pandemic when schools and libraries closed.
She said that children at schools they had assisted learned to read very slowly, which they hoped to change through training educators on how to help those pupils.
“We aim to give children access to books and for them to enjoy it. Children should read, enjoy reading, and read with understanding which is one of the biggest challenges because many of them are not reading in their home language. We can solve that by having the resources they need and educating teachers on how to help them. A community effort is needed to overcome reading difficulties,” she said.