Two projects were inaugurated at St. Ignatius College Primary School Ħal Luqa, a project in the recreational space carried out by the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) and a new literacy room project carried out by the workers of this school.
“Two projects that although different, but go hand in hand – because they are both projects through which we are seeing the beautification of the educational environment of this school. As a Government we believe that we should encourage the involvement of students in sport and physical activity as well as to increase awareness of the importance of reading”, said the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth , Research and Innovation Clifton Grima during a visit to the school.
The school’s recreational space has been totally changed and modernized with a beautification project with an investment of €200,000. The work involved removing the old rubber flooring; earth and trench excavation work; installation of drainage and irrigation systems; re-concrete and soft rubber flooring; construction of cones for trees; planting new shrubs, plants and trees; as well as installation of outdoor furniture including oak wooden benches and precast reading structures.
The FTS signed an agreement on the maintenance of shrubs, plants and trees with a company that does this type of work. This project is in line with the mandate of the FTS to provide high quality learning, sports and recreation spaces to children, students and educators in all State schools.
The College staff worked on a new Literacy Room with the aim of increasing the time dedicated to reading in Maltese and English in the school while increasing good literacy practices.
The teaching method known as ‘Balanced Literacy’ has always been at the top of the agenda of the Luqa Primary School and that is why this work was done which is also seeing the strengthening of the importance of reading. In this room, the students have an environment enriched with books that is not just the classroom library.
In addition, in the Literacy Room, reading is taught in a relaxing environment that motivates students in achieving literacy. An attraction in the room is a tree made of wood and whose trunk and branches serve as shelves for books.
The idea behind this is, that as a tree grows if it finds someone to give it what it needs, so can children develop their literacy skills if they are given the necessary tools for this to happen. The floor and the walls also complement this tree with the aim of creating a garden environment that offers a sense of tranquility; an ideal place to spend your free time and read.
In addition to improving the collaboration in the promotion of literacy between the various agencies that work in favor of this area, another purpose for which the ‘Literacy Room’ is used is to increase the involvement of parents in developing their children’s literacy through reading and storytelling programs such as ‘Read With Me’. Other literacy programs aimed at older children such as ‘Seher l’Stijjer’ and ‘Gost il-Qari’ also come to life in this creative space.
