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British Council officials with representatives from local schools receiving their reading challenge prizes |
More than 1,000 students actively engaged in the challenge to read six books in a one month period in their school library. For every book read, students received some kind of incentive, for example a pencil or stickers. The competitive edge was definitely high amongst the students; one student from Muraikh Independent Primary School read 16 books in four weeks and a group of girls from Al Bayan Primary 2 challenged each other to finish the six books within one week.
Caroline Cameron, English projects manager at British Council, said: “I am so pleased to hear that this initiative has caused such excitement amongst the student population. Receiving feedback that students were trying to sneak out of class to go to the library is something that I could not have imagined at the start. I would like to thank all students, teachers, librarians, school administration and management and parents involved in contributing to the success of Space Hop.”
Participating schools also had the opportunity to enter a competition to win a set of Space Hop books to keep in their library. First prize went to Muraikh Independent Primary School for Boys and second prize went to Al Khor Model School. Both schools received a collection of about 100 space-related books for their library.
They both provided for an incredible range of activities in their schools, ranging from an all school assembly, fashion shows, arts and crafts and space-related food to inviting parents and people from the local community to read stories to the students.
Masooda Ali, assistant vice principal at Muraikh Primary, and Sawsan Baker, assistant vice principal at Al Khor Model, received the book collections on behalf of their schools.