St. Winefride’s teacher goes the extra mile for Reading Club

─ club launched today at St. Winefride’s Secondary School  

By Alleya Hamilton

DPI, Guyana, Friday, May 24, 2019

St. Winefride’s Secondary School launched its first Reading Club as a result of one dedicated teacher’s desire to help the students improve in their literacy.

Nine years ago, when Arena Benjamin completed her training from the Cyril Potter’s College of Education (CPCE), she began teaching at St Winefride’s Secondary School. After discovering that her students were struggling in their literacy, she decided to create a Reading Club to help them soar easily and achieve better results in the area.

She began to work towards establishing the reading room, and throughout her pursuit, she was supported by fellow teachers and students at the school and officials of the Ministry of Education.

Today, an old storage room has been transformed into a bright and engaging Reading Room for students to enjoy, while enhancing their literacy capacity.

The St. Winefride’s Reading Club was launched today at the school.  Students and teachers including, Teacher Benjamin, were there to usher in this new prospect. The persistent teacher, who spent long nights in the school compound working to create this conducive space, smiled with pride and joy as she recognised her success. “We want [our students] to explore and own the world we are living in, and they must believe that this can only be done through the power of reading,” she remarked.

Her work, which was done beyond the call of duty, is also appreciated and serves as an inspiration to students like Deena Rampersaud.

“I think it is very nice that Miss Benjamin brought this Reading Club because it will help children to process words that they do not understand better and I think it will help me with my school work. So, I can get to do a lot of things in life. I would like to become a teacher just like Miss Benjamin.”

The Reading Club will operate for three days per week and students will be able to play interactive literacy games, borrow books and have discussions about literature. Fifteen students have already secured membership at the club.

Images: Giovanni Gaije

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