Former Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, creator of the much-loved Gruffalo and other brilliant children’s books, was a welcome visitor at Forthview Primary School yesterday. Julia worked with P3 classes during her visit to promote Reading Culture, a new initiative to encourage families to enjoy reading together.
Forthview is holding a series of reading events this month in a bid to encourage both pupils and their parents to read. The school has been working on the development of a Reading Culture, involving school pupils, parents, the local public library and the wider community.
The project aims to encourage children to read for pleasure and to involve parents in the hope that they will also be encouraged to read to their children and read for their own enjoyment. This work is funded by The Scottish Government as part of The City of Edinburgh’s involvement in the South-East Scotland Inter-authority Literacy Hub.
Edinburgh author Lari Don has agreed to be the school’s Patron of Reading. There was a day of events to launch this last week followed by author visits and library visits for every stage, as well as the setting up of a parents’ book group.
Other authors confirmed so far to take part in the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature funded sessions are Simon Puttock, John Fardell (who will also work with the school’s fathers’ group), Joan Lennon, Barry Hutchison and Roy Gill.
Mind you, Forthview parents have a proud record of writing stories themselves – remember the Pathway to Pilton project in 2012 (pictured below)?
