Reading Together® at Amuri Area School

The following extract is from the Amuri Area School Newsletter (No. 17, Week 6, 7 June 2019) available here:

Reading Together® 
Another great night on Wednesday where participants braved the cold to spend time in the library with a focus on choosing appropriate books for their child.  Thanks to all that came along to support their child's development. ...  This course was oversubscribed which is a real indication of the level of engagement our parents have with their children.

Immigration New Zealand published an article in Dec 2018 titled 'Class act' available here. Extracts from the article follow:

A new Ministry of Education pilot programme is employing part-time Bilingual Support Workers in schools around New Zealand. At Amuri Area School, the programme is already proving its worth. ...
Leila is one of fifty Bilingual Support Workers who have been employed in a pilot programme to support new migrant students in state and state-integrated schools.
Leila's ten-hour-a-week position embraces a number of roles, says Migrant Student Co-ordinator Claire McCarthy. ...
Leila also has a broader, often after-hours, role as a bridge between the school, Amuri's longstanding residents, and the Filipino community. ...

A year earlier, Leila had worked with Claire to bring Filipino parents to a series of four evening Reading Together® workshops.
For time-constrained Filipino families where often one partner had to rise at 4am to milk cows and the other was commuting to Hanmer to work in the hotels, motels and holiday homes, this meant a serious commitment. But the workshops were a great success, says Claire.
"I remember one of the mums looking around the workshop and saying, with surprise, 'We are all Filipinos!' They were delighted to be there, and we were delighted too. It meant they were committed to helping their kids read at home."