THE Allman Town Infant School in east Kingston is a step closer to improving its literacy and academic performance after the National Baking Company Foundation gifted the students with an array of learning materials last week.

The foundation, a lead sponsor of National Child Month celebrations 2023, feted the students and staff in a joint celebration of Child Month and Read Across Jamaica Day.

Books, crayons, paint, paint brushes, and an array of snacks and baked goods were handed over to the children. Teachers and other staff also received National goods for their efforts to boost the school’s literacy programme.

Principal of the Allman Town Infant School, Dorothy Mason-Balmer, expressed her gratitude for what she said was a welcome gift at a time when a number of students need support with sustenance and reading materials.

“One of the things we hope to do this year is to host a breakfast programme, and we also want to build a reading room for the students,” said Mason-Balmer.

Like many other schools in Jamaica, the Allman Town Infant School has been challenged with students whose literacy levels are not where they should be.

The administrators of the school believe that having a dedicated space for reading and other interventions, such as getting more learning materials, will help their academic performance.

Meanwhile, the school’s literacy specialist Lucan Moore explained that it has moved to improve academic achievement by incorporating dancing, art and other activities into the lessons.

“I am proud to say that as a [National Baking Company Foundation] Little Leaders Teachers scholarship recipient, the work that I am helping to do here in enhancing Allman Town Infant School’s literacy programme is figuring out how to institute different ways of reading, getting them to express themselves and to make it fun,” said Moore.

During the day’s celebrations executive director of the National Baking Company Foundation Lauri-Ann Samuels and other staff members engaged the cohort of nearly 120 students in fun and interactive read-aloud sessions incorporating music and dance.

“The National Baking Company Foundation has been an avid supporter of teachers and institutions at the early childhood level because we believe that bolstering education at this foundational stage is extremely important to nation building. It was great to see Allman Town Infant School’s effort into their reading corners and engaging their students today; we are happy to have been a part of it,” said Samuels.

The foundation has previously been involved in the push to improve literacy and other academic performance through its Little Leaders initiative, which has donated learning kits with tools focusing on art, maths, science, language development and motor development.