Literacy camp captures young imaginations

LAURYN FULLER would rather be an actress than a teacher, but that didn’t stop her explaining the rules of a game invented by herself and her classmates.

Between the showers in the last week of the holidays, the fifth-class pupil and more than 30 others have been having fun with reading and writing back at school in Cork’s north inner city.

After helping others in her group devise a game they called The Funky Race, she then had to teach it to some of the younger pupils. But while she enjoyed this, teaching isn’t a career she has in mind at this stage.

“It’s a bit confusing telling people what to do, and there’s too much college,” said Lauryn.

“I’d like to be an actress when I grow up, I like Anne Hathaway, she was in the Princess Diaries.”

The games were part of the week-long summer literacy camp at North Presentation Primary School where big strides were made to improve the reading, writing and other skills.

On this particular morning, older children made up games and then taught them to the younger children by writing down the rules and explaining them aloud.

Hayley Power explained a game call Obstacles, which her group came up with.

“You have to put the plastic markers on the ground and follow them in a path, then do it with a bean bag on your head and then afterwards with and egg and spoon,” she said.

“We all came up with it between us and some of us wrote down the instructions.”

Her favourite part of the week was Tuesday’s visit to Blackrock Castle, where they saw a big telescope and displays on space at the observatory, but she has enjoyed all the activities.

“It’s different because there’s fewer people in the class, and you don’t just sit down reading books,” said Hayley.

Many of the school’s newcomer children are also taking part, including Liza Chervova, whose English would not give away that she has only lived here for three years, although her accent is a mix of Cork and Ukrainian.

“I just had a very small bit of English before we came but I love going to school,” she said.

And the experience of the last week has been very helpful. “It’s easier to learn because you get more chances to speak and tell your stories.”

For the girls from third and fourth class, the trip to the Blackrock Castle Observatory mixed fun with a small bit of work when they got back to the class.

Their teacher for the week was Laura Bohane, who will be teaching infants when normal classes resume next week, but is one of four North Pres teachers back a week early to run the literacy camp.

“We got them to gather some of the information they might need for a poster while they were at the castle. Then when we were back in school, we talked about the kind of text and the adjectives they might use to describe it.”

Sophie Clare and her classmates for the week spent Thursday morning drawing posters, using some of the adjectives they came up with to describe the castle and its observatory.

“It’s historical, it’s ancient. And it’s fun too,” she said as she set to work on her colourful creation.

The other part of the week she enjoyed was Wednesday’s visit to the English Market, which hosted Queen Elizabeth during her visit to Cork in May, where pupils became reporters for the morning and asked the traders interesting questions.

“I asked them if they saw the Queen and if they like doing their jobs. And I found out that sharks are protected by the Government,” said Sophie.

The camp meant she and the others were back in school earlier than most of their friends, but Sophie didn’t mind in the least.

“I was running out of things to do at home anyway,” she said.