Reading Program

So what’s been stewing in the pot? We’ve laid out a tentative schedule for our reading program, it’s sorta like a pilot program, we’ll be testing it out really soon in another school that already has a library, fine tune it, then implement it in the new school library. Here’s how it goes-

Where: Sekolah Dasar Singapadu, Belang (That's Made's primary school!)
When: Every Sunday, 2 sessions for 2 different groups of kids
Time: Session 1- 11am to 12pm, Session 2- 12pm to 1pm
Who: The 4 of us (Made, Miyuki, Siew Cheng and myself), and the school’s English teacher, plus whoever would like to volunteer

In a typical school, the pupils start learning English only at class 3 (that’s age 9!) They have lessons once a week, and the English teacher goes to a different school everyday of the week to conduct lessons. It is difficult to get “proper” English teachers for the schools, thus they usually “make do”...if you get my drift.

We’ll try to include the pupils from class 1 and 2 for session 1, so that’s going to be really basic, then the rest for session 2. It’s not just going to an English lesson though, we hope that we’ll be able to work with Miyuki and incorporate learning with visual arts and movement. Siew Cheng will draw up the lesson plan, and for continuity, the English teacher will hopefully be able to use it during the curriculum hours to support the program.

BUT! As it is hard for us to be volunteering with the program all of the time and be with whichever library we manage to set up, we hope for the school to run this on its own as much as possible. Before we start planning for a school, we will have to speak to the head of the school and have his/her assurance that they will make full use of the library, also how they will be doing so, and if they will need some assistance from us. On top of that, we hope also to tap into the expats living around the area to volunteer long term with the school.