A countywide project aimed at improving child literacy levels and enhancing communication within the household has been launched in County Clare.“Read On With Tom” is a literacy strategy devised and initiated by the Home School Liaison Coordinators in County Clare, a group comprising local teachers who provide and coordinate home school liaison support. Under the project, novels relating to the Antarctic expeditions of Kerry native Tom Crean are given to participating schoolchildren. The children are encouraged to read and discuss the books with their parents and extended family.
The novels are targeted at three different age groups, namely 5-8 years (Tom Crean's Rabbit: A True Story from Scott's Last Voyage by Bert Kitchen), 9-13 years (The Ice Man: The Antarctic Adventures of Tom Crean by Michael Smith) and 13+ years (Tom Crean: Unsung Hero of the Scott and Shackleton Antarctic Expeditions by Michael Smith). Launching the ‘Read On With Tom’ project at the De Valera Library in Ennis, Mayor of Clare Councillor Madeleine Taylor Quinn said, ‘Recognising that the child’s habits and values are rooted in the home, the home school coordinators have decided to focus on parents and the extended family in an effort to develop a love of reading in the children of the participating schools’.
Mayor Taylor Quinn noted that the project would improve communication within the household between parents and children regardless of which book they read. She added, ‘in an age of computer consoles and mass media, communication within the household has greatly disimproved. This project is deigned to reverse this trend and to introduce people to reading, which is a life long skill. By reading about the achievements of figures like Tom Crean, children are inspired to develop their imaginations and also learn that anything is possible’.
