MEMBERS of the Kiwanis Club of New Kingston’s Young Children Priority One (YCPO) committee were at Providence Basic School in St Andrew last week engaging students in preparation for the Little Bee competition.

Little Bee is a three-year-old spelling bee competition for basic school students. For children to be adequately prepared, Kiwanis club members go around engaging basic schools in reading exercises through their Read Around the World programme every other month. Afterwards, students are required to learn the words in preparation for the competition in November.

“Little Bee has helped children to master their reading skills and reasoning capabilities. It also helps students to advance into primary and high school spelling bee competitions,” YPCO chair Shernette Guthrie said.

Dr Adella Campbell, director, said the programme encourages reading and learning in young children but takes different formats, including health education, to pique their interest.

As such, the focus at Providence last week was education on the chikungunya virus, which principal Catherine Smith Gayle said had affected 50 per cent of the 154 student population.