Indigenous Literacy Campaign

DID YOU KNOW?

5 August 2011

Schools across Australia have been rallying together in support of the Indigenous Literacy Appeal and altogether have already sent in over 10,100 pre-loved books!

WHAT FANTASTIC WORK EVERYONE!  Congratulations on your hard work.  Your efforts make such a huge difference in the lives of the kids who receive these, who get to love your books all over again!

Dapto Public School INSPIRES others yet again!

6 July 2011

AWESOME WORK KIDS!!

Dapto Public School had their mufti day for Share-a-book. The students from their special education class helped to gather the books and load them into a teacher's ute. There were 10 big boxes of books in total.

Last week, SchoolAid and the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) received a humbling surprise from the children at Camdenville Out of School Hours Care (OSHC).

15 June 2011

Each child at Camdenville OSHC had written a personal message inside the cover of 2 boxes of pre-loved picture books, which they donated to children their own age in remote Indigenous communities in need of basic literacy resources through the ALNF and SchoolAid Indigenous Literacy Appeal.
 
By taking part in the Indigenous Literacy Appeal, children at Camdenville OSHC were able to reach across Australia and support their Indigenous peers.

Australia 'falling behind' on Indigenous literacy

9 June 2011

It has been several years since the Federal Government committed to halving the literacy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, but the latest report suggests there is still a long way to go.  The first progress report shows that literacy among younger Indigenous students has improved, but five out of eight states and territories failed to meet literacy goals for Indigenous students in year nine.

Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, says he is hopeful that next year's figures will be better.

The report was compiled by the Council of Australian Government Reform Committee. The committee's chair, Paul McClintock, says it paints a worrying picture.  "The numeracy and literacy figures are the most accurate we have," he said.  "We've got the NAPLAN data for last year and that's why we focused on those, and said that in Year Nine reading particularly and the whole of numeracy, we see some real signs that we're falling behind."

The good news is that younger Indigenous students appear to be making significant steps forward - the number of students in years three, five and seven who reached the minimum standard has increased.

But things have not gone so smoothly for older students.

Five out of eight states and territories failed to meet literacy goals for Indigenous students in year nine.  In New South Wales the number of Indigenous students meeting the national minimum standard for reading declined significantly.

Dr Chris Sarra, an expert in Indigenous literacy, says it is difficult to pinpoint where things are going wrong.  "We've got a long way to go and we've all got to keep working pretty hard at this," he said.  "I think it's very significant that we know exactly what we're looking at. We know for sure that there are some problems in and around year nine achievement, and that's going to mean people who are teaching Indigenous kids in year six, seven, eight are going to have to have a look at what we have to do.  "It's a very complex scenario, it's difficult to pinpoint what has to happen, but one thing we know for sure is that we all have to do better."

Mr Garrett says there is both good news and bad news.  "While we are seeing some good improvements in things like year three reading, year five numeracy, we are seeing some drop off in the later years and clearly that's something which we expect education authorities will need to pay special attention to," he said.

~ courtesy of Timothy McDonald, ABC News

ALNF has been very impressed with the response received from volunteers who have offered to help with sorting and packing books donated to them for the Share-A-Book program.

18 May 2011

Over the last three months, ALNF have had just under 100 people who have assisted ALNF staff members in organising and packing books so they can be sent to communities in need. A cohort of volunteers have met fortnightly to volunteer for Share-A-Book (SAB). In the first half of 2011, ALNF has sent several palettes (1000 + books) to each of the communities on Groote Eylandt (NT), Palm Island (QLD) and Kempsey (NSW). They also ensure that SAB's are ready to be delivered to other areas where there is a need that has been expressed.

On Groote Eylandt, the community has been extremely enthusiastic about receiving SAB's. At the beginning of this year, 1000+ books were sent to Groote and all of them were gone within 6 weeks! As a result, there's been an extra delivery to Groote Eylandt with double the amount (almost 2000 books).

(image courtesy of Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation)

On Palm Island, spacious storage spaces are in the process of being built to accommodate the demand from schools, parents, children and other community members for SABs. Bookshelves containing SABs are being set up in schools, family support workers and youth workers are distributing SABs when they visit clients and the general outreach of books has expanded. Nazi Youngblutt, Community Liason Officer on Palm island, has also set up a reading circle in the local mall where she reads SABs and allows children to take them home.

SAB libraries are set up in pre-schools in Kempsey, where children are allowed to also take these books home. ALNF has received an outstanding response from community members who have been participating in the SAB program. One of the Directors of an Indigenous pre-school in Kempsey commented that many of the children's reading abilities had greatly improved because they had received constant exposure to SABs on a regular basis and in their homes. A number of parents also expressed that they had noticed an apparent growth in their children's engagement with books and reading habits since having access to SABs.

St Andrew's Anglican College leads the way!

29 April 2011

The Share-a-book project was an initiative of the Student Council.  Students raised awareness of the importance of all students being able to have access to books. 

They decided that it would be the College's aim to get each student to bring in one pre-loved book to raise a total of 590 books.  This was exceeded as some students donated more than one book.  The students kept a record of the amount of books brought in and announced the progress each week. 

FANTASTIC WORK KIDS!

The Primary School at St Andrew's Anglican College, QLD caters for boys and girls from Preparatory to Year 6. The students are carefully nurtured by caring, dedicated and professional staff who focus on each individual's academic, physical, social and emotional needs. The children are encouraged to do their best in all of their endeavours. All students in the Primary School study the following curriculum areas: Mathematics, English, Social Studies, Science, Technology, The Arts, Music, Health & Physical Education and Religious Education. In addition to these subjects, from Prep, the students learn Chinese. The use of computers is integrated throughout the curriculum. In addition, the students have many opportunities to participate in a wide range of sporting, outdoor and cultural activities, which help to develop their self-esteem and social interactions, while ensuring a holistic education.

Keyneton Primary School- What an inspiration!

25 January 2011

"We chose this as our final fundraiser for 2010 after Lauren presented the concerning facts about Indigenous literacy levels in remote Australia to the students at an SRC meeting. We discussed how important reading and books are to all of us and how much we enjoy having a good selection of books to choose from.

We also discussed how we all had favourite books that we had outgrown and would be willing to donate to Aboriginal children so that they could benefit from them. The students decided that although they probably had several books they could bring along, postage costs could become an issue so most students and teachers brought just one favourite book.

Students also donated $2, some of this was used to cover postage costs and the remainder of the money was sent to SchoolAid for delivery of the books to the Indigenous children in outback Australia." - Cathy Hull, Principal, Keyneton Primary School (SA)

THANK YOU KEYNETON PRIMARY! YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO OTHER AUSSIE KIDS!

Hands up who cares?

10 November 2010

Check out ALNF's touching video below to mark the launch of their 2010 Wall of Hands campaign.

For more information on how to get involved, visit our Wall of Hands page. 

The future of Indigenous literacy?

21 October 2010

Audrina, 10, dreams of becoming a teacher librarian when she finishes school. This in itself isn't all that amazing, but when you realise the obstacles that many Indigenous kids face when it comes to literacy, finishing school, and going on to complete tertiary education, her goal is all the more impressive.

Audrina is proud of her role as the Library Monitor at Minimbah Primary, an Indigenous community school in Armidale, NSW.

Minimbah's school library was recently augmented by a delivery of 40 boxes of books from the Share-A-Book program. These books are available for the kids to borrow, or even to take home and keep if they like. This system has an enormous impact in communities where kids may never have owned a book before.

Audrina has just finished reading all the Dr Seuss books in her school library and her favourite is Horton Hatches an Egg.

Download the 'Springboards to Philanthropy' focusing on Indigenous Literacy

7 September 2010

		SchoolAid's FREE Teacher Resources are made possible through the generous support of the Telstra Foundation.

Springboards to Philanthropy: 'Literacy in Rural & Remote Communities'

- Springboard #1. 'Ways of Knowing, Ways of Being, Ways of Doing'
- Springboard #2.  'Understanding Understanding'
- Springboard #3. 'Aboriginal Perspective on Storytelling'
- Springboard #4. 'Famous Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders'
- Springboard #5.  '24 hours on Planet Read'
- Springboard #6. 'Literacy Around Us'
- Springboard #7. 'Australian Aboriginal Dreaming'
- Springboard #8. 'National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC)'
- Springboard #9. 'Learning and School in Remote Communities'
- Springboard #10. 'Share A Book'

What are Springboards to Philanthropy?  Each of the Springboards focuses on the processes of learning and includes Points for Reflection and Links to Philanthropy. It is intended that these points be central to all of the proposed learning experiences and integral to the children's knowledge, understanding and learning as they reflect on life and values in the context of our society and the global community. In this context the intention is to move beyond a focus on natural disasters that devastate  communities and reflect on issues that are integral to the everyday lives of those who require support and assistance to be able to function effectively. It is the intention of these Springboards, based on the concept of philanthropy, that children be given as much ownership of the experiences and investigations as possible, so they are developing an understanding of their role as responsible members of the community. Philanthropy. It is intended that these points be central to all of the proposed learning experiences and integral to the children's knowledge, understanding and learning as they reflect on life and values in the context of our society and the global community. In this context the intention is to move beyond a focus on natural disasters that devastate communities and reflect on issues that are integral to the everyday lives of those who require support and assistance to be able to function effectively. It is the intention of these Springboards, based on the concept of philanthropy, that children be given as much ownership of the experiences and investigations as possible, so they are developing an understanding of their role as responsible members of the community. Please note that although the Springboards are numbered, this is for identification purposes only and shouldn't be taken as an indication of a need to explore these in any specific sequence.

The Indigenous Literacy Campaign is off to a flying start!

6 September 2010

Launched just last week, the campaign is already attracting attention.School Aid got a big mention in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald today.

The article, by Megan Johnston, is about how new technologies can be utilised to engage student in project based learning.

She wrote:

'The charity SchoolAid, for example, helps students from 1500 schools across the country support less advantaged children.

Its new indigenous literacy campaign teaches pupils about indigenous issues and encourages them to donate books and money to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

Its founder, Sean Gordon, says such organisations pool the efforts of otherwise isolated grassroots campaigns and let children learn from one another while contributing to a good cause.

''It's about connecting schools for a common purpose,'' he says.

''A little school out of the back of Bourke can make a small but significant contribution. It gives country kids an equal opportunity to make a difference as city kids.'''

Click here for the full article.

VIPs raise their hand for Indigenous literacy!

2 September 2010

National Literacy and Numeracy Week 2010

2 September 2010

National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW) represents a collaborative approach by the Australian Government and the school community to highlight the importance of effective literacy and numeracy skills for all children and young people.

NLNW gives schools the opportunity to get involved in a range of literacy and numeracy activities. The Week aims to recognise locally the achievements of students and the work of teachers, parents and members of the community who support young people to develop stronger literacy and numeracy skills. 
 
The SchoolAid and ALNF Share-A-Book campaign is an activity of NLNW. You may wish to visit  www.deewr.gov.au/nlnw to find out more about NLNW in 2010.