SRCE Celebrates Literacy Month and Family Literacy Day on January 27, 2024, and Throughout the Year
The Strait Regional Centre for Education has annually designated January as Literacy Month and invites students, staff, families, volunteers, and community partners to celebrate SRCE Literacy Month and Family Literacy Day on Saturday, January 27, 2024, and throughout the year, by setting aside time to read with children and youth and inspire them to become lifelong readers.
Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 and held annually on January 27 to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. This year’s theme is “Let’s Have a Family Party”. As shared on the ABC Life Literacy Canada website, celebrate 25 years of Family Literacy Day and learning together as a family by having a party. Make food, sing songs, and play games. The possibilities for learning are endless – and it’s fun when you do it together.
Literacy skills are essential for lifelong success. Encouraging reading and writing together as a family helps students develop good listening, speaking, vocabulary and language skills, imagination and creativity, and contributes to their future success and well-being.
There are many ways to develop and strengthen literacy skills while enjoying outdoor activities, reading a book together, playing a word game, writing, making a list, using a recipe, surfing the web, or just simply having a conversation.
The SRCE Programs and Student Services Department under the leadership of Tanya Carter, Coordinator of Literacy, launched a Literacy Campaign leading up to Family Literacy Day and for the month of January. The campaign invites schools to share on their social media channels photos of students and staff caught reading or writing using diverse tools and strategies to celebrate the many ways they are incorporating literacy skills across the curriculum in the Pre-primary Program and in Grades Primary to 12. On the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), follow @SRCE_Literacy and @SRCE_NS to learn more about the great work happening in SRCE schools to develop and strengthen students’ reading and literacy skills.
In addition, the following resource was developed by the SRCE Literacy Team for families to promote reading at home:
Literacy instruction is a priority for all students in the SRCE, across all subjects and grade levels. In addition to school-based staff, Programs and Student Services staff, including but not limited to SchoolsPlus personnel, Speech-Language Pathologists, and English as an Additional Language teachers, have an integral role in developing literacy learning of students through in-class programming. Further, the goal of improving student achievement in literacy is one of the main goals included in the SRCE’s System Improvement Plan for 2023-2024. The Plan focuses on goals and priorities to address the needs of all learners in the SRCE. For more information, please access the complete plan at SRCE System Improvement Plan for 2023-2024, and access the infographic at SRCE System Improvement Plan 2023-2024 Infographic.
Let’s make reading, writing and learning together part of our everyday activities in and out of the classroom.