PUPILS in a South-East Clare school jumped for joy last week after completing a marathon reading challenge totalling more than 1.3 million minutes.
Children in Parteen National School were presented with an arduous challenge to read for a million minutes in just 21 weeks from November 3 to the end of March.
This massive and unique challenge was a real test for the school as it equated to each of their 293 pupils reading for almost 3,500 minutes each.
On Thursday, March 31, the children marked their success with a celebration day in the school where children, staff and parents literally jumped for joy in the sunshine and seized some much needed fun after the last few years of Covid-19 challenges and restrictions.
This unique readathon began in November when the teachers at the school brainstormed how they could get their pupils to re-engage with reading after the challenges of lockdown and periods of school absence.
Teachers wanted to get the children excited about reading again and to bond together as a team, setting a target that could only be achieved if everyone worked together towards a common goal.
They decided to focus on the number of minutes that would be read rather than the number of books as this levelled the playing field for all, with the focus being on effort and time spent reading.
The children really connected with the concept, and not only reached their million minutes target, but smashed it by reading for 1,317, 894 minutes in total.
They did this by teachers and parents logging and signing records stating what their children were reading and for how long on a daily basis and that data was compiled into a weekly report by the school Million Minutes’ Team.
The school student council gave feedback to the school on a weekly basis and prizes were announced for the school bookworms – the children who read the most each week throughout the challenge to keep children focused and motivated.
Over the weeks, momentum was kept up through older pupils becoming reading buddies with younger children and reading outside together.
Zoom calls and visits from authors, journalists and sports personalities were organised with the likes of Jacqui Hurley, Darren Shan, Razan Ibraheem, Alan Nolan, John W Sexton and Roisin Meaney.
The annual school Scholastic Book Fair was also reintroduced after a Covid-19 based hiatus of a couple of years to harness the storybook related excitement and to help restock class libraries with commission orders.
The Million Minutes Celebration Day on Thursday saw the whole school community come together to mark their success in the beautiful spring sunshine.
Children and staff dressed up as book characters, played together in the yard, danced Zumba with the help of instructor Darren Nash, and enjoyed absolutely fabulous magic shows with the amazing Terence Andrews.
Teacher, Aislinn Carey recalled the day was also filled with fun activities such as literary based quizzes and “Masked Reader” challenges with their teachers.
The pupils even got congratulatory video messages from Noni, Dermot Whelan and author, Lisa Thomson.
A past pupil, Ruairí McMahon skilfully created a fabulous video memento of the day with his drone and camera skills, which can be seen on the school’s social media accounts.
“The fun and positivity towards books and reading was palpable in the air that day.
“Perhaps more importantly, the whole school community got to come together mostly outdoors to celebrate their team work and look forward to their next big challenge,” said Ms Carey.