International Literacy Day – 8th September 2021
In 1966 UNESCO proclaimed 8th September every year as International Literacy Day, to remind the international community of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies; and to encourage more literate societies. In September 2015 world leaders adopted the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda to promote universal access to quality education and learning opportunities throughout people’s lives. One of UN’s key goals is to ensure all young people achieve literacy and numeracy and that adults, who lack these skills are given the opportunity to acquire them.
Literacy is of course a key component of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The EYFS sets out that we should encourage children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension, necessary for both reading and writing, starts from birth. It develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books they read with them, as well as the rhymes, poems and songs adults and children enjoy together.
Later in a child’s development we look to develop skilled word reading. This involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words, ie. decoding; and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words.
In our Nurseries we encourage the children to enjoy our books. We will sit with the children at different times during the day to read a book together. Our team focus on bringing the books to life; encouraging the children to join in and asking them lots of questions to encourage their understanding of the stories.
During the COVID-19 pandemic we have had to prevent items, such as books from going between home and the nurseries. However, as we move to something looking more like normality, we will be re-starting our lending library to share books between nursery and home. As part of this we will be sending books home with the children to share with their families. We hope you enjoy these books.
