SCORES of students from 40 schools across St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland gathered at the Flankers Primary School recently for the eighth consecutive staging of the Region Four Regional Literacy Fair.

The annual event, held under the theme ‘Building Back Better: Re-Energise and Reinvigorate a Nation of Readers’, was aimed at bolstering academic performance in the area of literacy.

Students were given the opportunity to showcase their literacy prowess via several themed games and activities, including Time-O-Rhyme, reading comprehension, spelling, maths relay, and Sketch to Stretch.

“We envisaged that the Regional Literacy Fair would engage students of varied reading levels, including those who cannot yet read but are able to use their imagination to sketch what they comprehend from a story read to them,” said Nicola Shakes-Wilson, regional literacy coordinator for Region Four, which initiated the fair, first held in 2015.

The fair, which caters to children from early childhood to grade nine, also featured an exciting concert hour, essay and poster competitions as well as an entertaining cadre of jingle and dub poetry competition winners.

According to Shakes-Wilson, the fair sought to involve everyone, including teachers, in a tongue twister competition, and parents in a spelling competition. “Children were also treated to games and rides, which made this year’s event a highly edutaining one,” she said.

Additionally, participating schools had the opportunity to flex their creative muscles in the set-up of special reading centres, while the regional director, Dr Michele Pinnock, added to the event by introducing a number of students to coding.

“The Regional Literacy Fair is dubbed an all-inclusive event that boasts the best of the region of innovators — Region Four,” said Shakes-Wilson, as she extended thanks to all the principals and teachers who she said wholeheartedly support the event each year.

She was also extremely grateful to the various sponsors of the event, including Flankers Primary, Kris N Charles Investments Company Limited, Collins Books and More, Bookzone Limited, JTA Co-operative Credit Union Limited, and Sandals resorts in the Montego Bay region.

“Literacy is the foundation that insights wonder and progressive learning. Support for initiatives, such as this one, that seek to re-establish the importance of literacy and explore creative methods, allowing us to better connect with our students, is of utmost importance,” said Rochelle Forbes-Reid, public relations manager for Sandals resorts in Montego Bay and member of the Region Four Literacy Steering Committee.

For Dagean Hibbert-Wallcot, teacher at Nest Education in St James — the 2022 Regional Literacy Fair champion — the fair is a calendar activity that her students look forward to.

“The Literacy Fair is a part of Nest. It motivates the students because we at Nest love competition. It provides an avenue for us to take part in external activities and this will, in turn, help the students to build their confidence and take on the world,” Hibbert-Wallcot said.

Speaking of confidence, no one epitomised this more than the winner of the Anything but a Hat competition, Tasheka Young, a student of the Savanna-La-Mar Primary School.

“This was my first time participating in the Regional Literacy Fair and it was an amazing experience. I loved each and every thing about this event,” said Tasheka, who spoke proudly of her winning entry entitled A Book of Flowers.

In the meantime, for Eber Primary student, Sataynia Fullwood, what was most exciting was the play area and meeting students from other schools. “I felt so excited when I won second place in the math competition too,” said Sataynia.

Feedback from a number of teachers and parents at the event indicated that it was well-received and promises to continue being a staple on their school’s calendar.