On the International Day of Literacy this year, International Schools Partnership (ISP) launched its first annual ISP Reading Challenge. The month-long challenge for its schools in the Middle East encouraged students to read as much as possible in English and Arabic.
Children in the younger years received a Reading Challenge Treasure Map or a Reading Challenge Passport to record their reading, while children in our secondary years uploaded their Reading Challenges using a digital link.
Challenge Accepted!
Over the month-long event, as children were encouraged to track their reading, they accepted the challenge wholeheartedly.
There were over 8,600 additional conversations about reading that happened in the Early Years / Foundation Stage, Kindergarten, Elementary, and Primary years.
Reading reduces stress by 68%
In the Secondary years there were 700 entries into the Reading Challenge. Other highlights in the secondary years include:
- 1450 reading challenges were completed
- 131 reading challenges were designed by secondary children
Children learn 4,000 to 12,000 words per year through reading.
Part of the challenge urged students to read in multiple languages. Beyond English and Arabic ISP students read in 24 other languages. They are:
Spanish | Bengali | Dutch | Romanian |
French | Zimbabwe – Shona | Tamil | Indonesian |
Urdu | Swahili | Russian | Sinhala |
Portuguese | Thai | Malayalam | Italian |
Japanese | Afrikaans | Bhasa | Hindi |
Turkish | German | Tamil | |
Latin | Catalan |
Children who read for 20 minutes a day will read approximately 1,800,000 words per year or 23,400,000 over their time in school
Special inspirational visits
Throughout the month, ISP had the privilege of welcoming a number of authors to visit its students virtually. The children’s authors read books, spoken about the importance of reading, and shared their own journeys. Authors the students met included:
- Stephanie Robert
- Sara Ghannoum
- Maria Georgiou (an ISP Teacher at Aspen Heights British School)
- Musab Beiruteih (an ISP Teacher at The Aquila School)
- Stuart Yates (an ISP Teacher at The British School of Malaga in Spain)
- Fatima Bakro
- Doha Khasanwaneh