Orewa Rotary Donates Dictionaries to School

 

From leftMark and Paula Atherley, Eileen Parker, Deputy Principal Orewa Primary Ann Heath, Past President Doug Parker

 

The Rotary Club of Orewa has just recently given a “one off” donation of 20 Usborne Illustrated Dictionaries to each of the ten Primary Schools on the Hibiscus Coast. Orewa North, Dairy Flat, Gulf Harbour, Kingsway, Red Beach, Silverdale, Stanmore Bay, Stella Maris, Whangaparaoa and Wainui.

This came about at their recent “Changeover evening” of Directors and officers when Doug Parker a longstanding Rotarian was presented with a $3000 Donation Voucher to distribute to a charity or charities of his choice for services rendered to the Orewa Club over the past ten years.

Doug chose to donate 20 Dictionaries to each of the ten schools on the Coast to help those pupils who struggle with reading and spelling.

In the case of the Orewa Primary School where Orewa Rotary has had an affiliation for the last 4 years with the ROCKS Programme (Rotary Organised Community Knowledge in Schools)


Doug and his wife Eileen generously donated a trophy to be given to the pupil who shows the most progress during the year. The pupil who wins this is also presented with a $20 voucher to help purchase an educational book of their choice with the help and supervision of the teaching staff. A further $80 was presented to purchase books for the school’s library.

Orewa Primary School also receives 20 Dictionaries of which five will be presented to the next five pupils showing the most progress to keep as their own, with the other fifteen remaining in the school for the benefit of the other pupils.

This project will continue for a period of five years with Orewa Primary, unless the club and the school wish to continue with it.

The ROCKS Programme is a wonderful programme where volunteers, such as retired people, wives of club members, and parents spend and hour or longer once a week listening to pupils aged between 5 and 11 years read and generally help and explain words and different meanings of the material they are reading.

As the teachers have said, this programme is making such a huge difference to the pupils reading ability and this in turn has a “flow through” effect to other subjects.

Anyone wishing to become involved with this reading programme would be very welcome and for more information contact Ann Heath, Deputy Principal, Orewa Primary School. Phone 426-5548.