LIFE gives books to children for Christmas
Santa and LIFE members (L-R) Marilyn Conolly, Woody Foster, Erin Galatopoulos and Andrea Bryan with the East End year 4 class
(CNS Local Life): Each of East End Primary School’s (EEPS) 92 students received two books for Christmas presented by Santa and donated by the charity Literacy Is For Everyone (LIFE). Minister for Education Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said of the donation: “It pleases me to see the generosity of LIFE not just during the giving season, but throughout the entire year. It is through private and public collaborations such as this one that we can continue to strengthen our student’s love for reading and inspire them to be lifelong learners.”
East End Deputy Principal Jessica Jackson also praised the work that LIFE does. “This donation from LIFE is just another example of the charity’s commitment to literacy in our schools,” she said in a press release.
“East End Primary School has benefited greatly from LIFE’s support throughout the years. The organisation has donated Levelled Literacy Intervention kits to assist with intensive support for those students in need; sponsored Partners in Print, a parent education programme; provided high quality books to assist in building our collection in the school library; and contributed levelled books to ensure students have access to high quality children’s literature in classroom libraries.”
As for the holiday surprise from Santa, she said, “The idea to give students books as Christmas presents is a result of both LIFE and EEPS’ desire for them to have great books to read at home along with the access they already have at school. We hope they’ll each find some quiet time this Christmas holiday to enjoy them.”
Jackson said that in order to keep the gifts as a surprise for students, LIFE gave EEPS the collection of books and classroom teachers used their knowledge of the children’s interests and abilities to select two special books for each of them. LIFE team members then wrapped all the books and tagged them with the students’ names.
“At LIFE our focus is on making a difference, one book, one child, one classroom at a time,” said the charity’s executive director, Marilyn Conolly. “Our holistic approach to literacy in our public schools focuses on impact and accountability and this has worked very well with EEPS.
“We are very happy to give the gift of adventure, curiosity and knowledge through books to the children of EEPS this Christmas. The individual, personal nature of the donation is important to us because children don’t just need books; they need books that they are interested in reading.”
Among the books donated were The Gruffalo, A Squash and a Squeeze, Mighty Trucks, Olivia, Splat the Cat, Dork Diaries, Unicorn Academy, Geronimo Stilton, Captain Underpants and The Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
