First minister agrees that Reading is so Caol!’
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon thinks Caol Primary School has done the Highlands proud after presenting pupils and staff with one of her national reading awards.
At a special event in Edinburgh last week, Caol primary was announced as one of the winners in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge 2018.
The Caol youngsters picked up the award for School and Community Partnership Reading Journey – National Winner from Ms Sturgeon at Left: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon happily posed in a ‘Reading is so Caol’ cap with the school’s young representatives. the ceremony celebrating the second year of the challenge
The First Minister’s Reading Challenge was launched in 2016 for primaries four to seven and, following the success of the first year, was expanded to include all primary age pupils.
The Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing, delivered the reading initiative on behalf of the Scottish Government and almost 1,000 schools, from 29 local authorities, registered. Caol primary was awarded the School and Community Partnership Reading Journey in recognition of its fantastic efforts in engaging the community in the school’s reading initiatives.
They developed successful partnerships with families, local businesses, their local library and authors and created imaginative, inclusive initiatives to celebrate their love of reading.
Commenting on the award, Kerry Lamont, literacy co-or- dinator at Caol Primary School, said: ‘We were delighted to take part in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge and have been busy promoting reading for enjoyment in a variety of ways with support from staff, pupils, families and the wider community. We’ve noticed a huge improvement in many of our pupils’ attitudes to reading and hope this continues. We’ve
all had so much fun working together to make reading ‘So Caol’ for our pupils.
‘Our slogan is ‘Reading is so Caol’, so we’ve tried to make it just that with pupils, staff, families and community members all getting involved.’
The Reading is so Caol campaign started with pupils sending in photos of themselves reading in unusual places and there was also merchandise such as banners, t-shirts and caps printed with the slogan.
There have been lots of authors, including Mairi Hedderwick and Barry Hutchison, visiting the school and messages of support from many more.
P7 pupil Josie Ball, 11, was one of the students representing the school at the Edinburgh event.
She explained: ‘I really enjoyed meeting Nicola Sturgeon because you hear so much about her on the news and in newspapers.
‘I loved seeing the other awards which schools won. I liked going up on the stage with Kayla and Mrs Lamont to receive our award. It was really good when the illustrator Tom Morgan Jones taught us how to draw. It was an amazing experience.’
Fellow pupil Kayla Duncan, aged eight, from primary four, who also met Ms Sturgeon, said she enjoyed the event too.
‘I have loved taking part in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge because our school started a ‘Reading is so Caol’ campaign which has encouraged everyone to read more.
‘We have been using a website called Fiction Express. This is cool because if you don’t have books at home you can read books online. We all enjoyed having famous authors visit the school because it inspired everyone to read.
‘We got the chance to go to Edinburgh and meet the first minister. I loved looking at other schools’ tables and getting some ideas for ‘Reading is so Caol’ next year.
‘I loved meeting the first minister and collecting our prize. She told me she loved the video I had made.’
Lucy Stephen, 11, from P7, added: ‘We all liked creating our own songs, Harry Potter day and getting new books. It’s been amazing seeing children who didn’t like reading finding books they enjoy and reading more than they did before.
‘It was also so awesome meeting the first minister because she knew lots about our campaign and even said, ‘‘Reading is so Caol!’’.’