The Allman Town Infant School is a step closer to improving its literacy and academic performance after the National Baking Company Foundation gifted the students with an array of learning materials.

The foundation, a lead sponsor of National Child Month celebrations 2023, feted the students and staff in a joint celebration of Child’s Month and Read Across Jamaica Day.

Books, crayons, paint and paintbrushes, and an array of snacks and baked goods were handed over to the children. Teachers and other staff also received National goods for their efforts to boost the school’s literacy programme.

Dorothy Mason-Balmer, principal at the institution, expressed her gratitude for what she noted was a welcome gift when a number of students need support with sustenance and reading materials. She added, “One of the things we hope to do this year is to host a breakfast programme, and we also want to build a reading room for the students.”

Like many others in Jamaica, the school has been challenged with students whose literacy levels are not where they should be. The school believes that having a dedicated space for reading and other interventions, such as getting more learning materials, will help their academic performance.

Meanwhile, the school’s literacy specialist and Class Three teacher, Lucan Moore, explained that the school has implemented to improve academic achievement by incorporating dancing, art and other activities into the lessons.

Moore added, “I am proud to say that as a [National Baking Company Foundation] Little Leaders Teachers scholarship recipient, the work that I am helping to do here in enhancing Allman Town Infant School’s literacy program is figuring out how to institute different ways of reading, getting them to express themselves and to make it fun.”

During the day’s celebrations, the staff and the Foundation Executive Director, Lauri-Ann Samuels, engaged the cohort of nearly 120 students in fun and interactive read-aloud sessions incorporating music and dance.

For her part,  Samuels shared, “The National Baking Company Foundation has been an avid supporter of teachers and institutions at the early childhood level because we believe that bolstering education at this foundational stage is extremely important to nation building. It was great to see Allman Town Infant School’s effort into their reading corners and engaging their students today; we are happy to have been a part of it.

The foundation has previously been involved in the push to improve literacy and other academic performance through their Little Leaders initiative, which has donated learning kits with tools focusing on art, maths, science, language development and motor development.