Students in St Mary and St Ann who once struggled with reading are seeing improvements in their literacy levels after participating in one-on-one pull-out sessions with the international programme SuperKids.

The SuperKids project, which ended recently, was executed by the United States non-profit organisation GreatShape! Inc. The literacy programme is supported by Sandals Foundation and the Ministry of Education and was implemented at Boscobel Primary and Infant School, Ocho Rios Primary, Exchange All-Age and Priory Primary and Infant School.

“This year, we really focused on providing extra attention to children just on the edge of falling behind,” said Georgene Crowe, SuperKids co-director and co-founder of Great Shape! Inc. “The students really responded to the lively, holistic lesson plans.”

Most of the children, Crowe said, “made significant gains in their abilities to read more fluently, comprehend content, decode words and increase their writing skills”.

This year’s pull-out approach was a pilot for the group and the programme saw 45 students from each school being referred to one-on-one literacy screenings to assess their specific needs. Students were then placed in smaller groups of three and received personalised remedial help for two weeks. Instructions were provided by a team of 15 volunteer teachers and assistants.

“The most significant gains were made in reading fluency and comprehension. You could see measurable change in most of the children,” said Carol Deach, a teacher at Priory Primary.

Volunteer teacher Pat Scheider said in addition to the boost in literacy, the programme has improved the students’ confidence.

“Low self-esteem is often one of the major problems in controlling behaviour in children. The one-on-one attention helped the children to focus, pay better attention to instructions and generally settle into the learning environment more rapidly,” Scheider added.

A total of 45 volunteers served the four schools in the areas of language arts, information technology, sports, art, and music.

The SuperKids project has been operating in Jamaica since 2008. Schools are chosen in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Great Shape! Inc and Sandals Foundation and are based on testing results and the needs of the students.