Rotary club give schoolchildren a ‘treasured gift’

Wakefield Chantry Rotary Club have presented all year 6 children at Crigglestone St James CE Primary Academy with their annual Dictionaries4Life.

Each of the books is specially printed and has been separately inscribed with the name of the pupil at the school on St James’ Way, Durkar.

The dictionaries, which are illustrated and in colour, are designed to be used by the children in their last year of primary school and then to be taken into senior school.

The presentations were made in assembly by Wakefield Chantry Rotary Club president Bob Guard and club communities member Dick Wood.

The assembly, which was moderated by new headteacher Glyn Denton, also included the weekly attendance awards for classes that had achieved more than 98 per cent the previous week.

After the presentation Mr Denton said: “The dictionaries are a superb gesture and perfectly timed. The year 6 children spent most of the morning after the presentation finding their way through them and are rightly thrilled with them. We encourage our children to be as independent and resilient as possible, when working within the classroom. As part of our constant push to apply written skills across the curriculum, the children are required to consult writing walls, dictionaries and a thesaurus. Having a personalised version to hand is ideal for them. It is also something that the year 6 children quite rightly treasure and will take with them as they shortly enter the next stage of their education. The Rotary Club’s gifts are the ideal support in so many ways both personal and academic.”