THE intense focus for reading was evident on the faces of students at St Andrew Preparatory School (STAPS) on Wednesday, as they engaged in small groups on the compound for storytelling activities at an event called Read Across STAPS.

The event, which facilitates students from kindergarten to the grade six level, is geared towards promoting the significance of reading and literacy, and improving the listening and comprehension skills of the pupils.

Several books were read by their authors to the students, who took turns in sharing what they learnt.

Five-year-old Zayn James was not shy in expressing his passion for reading.

“I love that it teaches us lessons, not to do anything naughty or bad and it’s really good to have friends to share what they learnt about their stories,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “It is my favourite thing to do. I love to read,” added seven-year-old Christian Morgan.

Christian’s peer six-year-old Jaunya- Alaine Tomlinson shared: “I love reading about God and kittens.” While six year-old Lois-Vashti Barnett expressed joy in participating in the reading activity.

“I think the story was good, it was very interesting. I enjoy reading with my friends because the books I have sound very good and sometimes funny,” she said.

Showing much delight at authors reading their books, eight-year-old Gabrielle McIntosh said, “I’ve learnt that there are authors here that have been telling stories that I like and they are very funny,” she said.

Grade one teacher and organiser of the programme Simone Bloomfield Hodges said each student will be required to do book reports.

“We know that reading is very important and we find that when the students are home, they don’t do a lot of that. One of the things we try to do here is model how we want them to behave. We want them to understand that reading is very important, no matter what subject they’re doing, it is going to be an integral part of that,” she said.

Bloomfield Hodges admitted that there were reading deficiencies among her students fuelled by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I have children in my class who are struggling with letter sounds and I’ve never had that before. So, this push will encourage them to start. We have to make sure that there is an attractiveness to reading,” she said. A similar concern was raised by grade three teacher Wendelyne Newsun.

“Initially, we have been seeing drop backs. But because we have been in physical school since November, it had improved,” she said.

Newsun said she was pleased that authors were reading their books to the students.

“It’s helpful so they don’t think that is only device they can use but they understand that these are real authors, because they do their Literature books but they know that they are authors but never seen authors. Today, they know that authors are real person who actually wrote the book and this is helping with their listening skills,” she said.