Read To Succeed!
 South Rutland Elementary School has been involved in a School District initiative that started after a research review was done by our former Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Ron Rubadeau. His position paper, "Achieving a Necessary Future" (ANF), originally proposed that some local elementary schools become involved in a pilot project to try to improve students' literacy (reading, writing, listening, speaking) skills. Bankhead Elementary, Pearson Elementary, Peter Greer Elementary, Rutland Elementary and South
Rutland Elementary schools were the first to become indentified as "ANF Schools". ANF schools expanded in 2003-2004 to include Springvalley Elementary and A.S. Matheson Elementary schools. In 2008-2009, Quigley Elementary became part of the ANF family of schools. We are excited about the impact that quality literacy instruction is having on student achievement at our school.
The features of the ANF organization include:
* reduced Primary class size (enrolment is limited to 18 students in each class, no split classes in Kindergarten--Grade 3)
* use of a screening process to inform Kindergarten--Gr. 3 teachers about individual student's literacy needs (Early Literacy Screener)
* careful tracking of student progress through the Primary grades (individual student performance data is passed from teacher to teacher)
* special teacher training (Primary teachers attend workshops during the school year that have been arranged by the School District)
Early Literacy Screener results and other literacy performance data are featured in our School Planning Council Report each year.
We also offer the following to help Primary and Intermediate students in our school:
* One-To-One Reading Program (parent/community volunteers who read with individual students)
* Read Naturally Program for identified Gr. 3 & 4 students (this program will be offered by our Learning Assistance Teacher in 2010/2011)
* In-School Mentorship Program (community volunteers who are screened, trained and 'matched' with students by the Big Brothers & Big Sisters of the Okanagan and meet with them at school each week for about 1 hour)
* A wide variety of reading materials available to our students (our Library collection boasts about 15,000 items!)
* "Star Reading", "SuccessMaker" and other literacy software is used to support students as they learn to read (thanks to Mr. DeLaurentiis for his efforts to implement the use of these programs in our Computer Lab)
* Strong encouragement from staff for students to read at home for extra practise on a daily basis
* A licensed After-School Care Program supports students and their families (it started in September 2008)
* A StrongStart Centre at our school that offers a program for preschoolers and their caregivers (for info about local StrongStart centres, click here)
Here are several web links and documents with a literacy theme--check them out!
* Kids' Poetry Page (a site that enables you to create "virtual" magnetic poetry or view the poetry that others have written)
* Starfall (a site for beginning readers)
If you would like some information about how families can support the development of reading skills, check out these resources:
* from the Ministry of Education ReadNowBC or
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