Team JIS Reads to Students at Grants Pen Primary and Infant School
By: , May 8, 2025
Photo: Raymond Simpson
The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Public Relations and Marketing Department took Read Across Jamaica Day to the Grants Pen Primary and Infant School in St. Thomas on Tuesday (May 6).
Photo: Raymond Simpson
Manager, Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Morant Bay Regional Office, Nyoka Linton, leads a reading session with grade-one students at the Grants Pen Primary and Infant School in St. Thomas on Read Across Jamaica Day on May 6.
Photo: Shanna K. Salmon
Public Relations Officer at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), Peta-Gay Hodges, leads a reading session at the Grants Pen Primary and Infant School in St. Thomas on Tuesday (May 6) as part of Read Across Jamaica Day activities.The Full Story
Members of the Public Relations and Marketing Department at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) took Read Across Jamaica Day to St. Thomas on Tuesday (May 6) with a mid-morning event at the Grants Pen Primary and Infant School.
The team read various books to students at different grade levels and engaged the youngsters through riveting discussions and question-and-answer sessions.
Manager for the Department, Andrea Braham, noted that the purpose of the visit “is really to encourage children to read and to develop a habit of reading”.
She noted that the students participated well in the sessions and were receptive of the material.
“It’s a lovely school. The children are lovely and so it is really a pleasure to be here. The students are bright, and they participated and embraced the messages that are in the books,” she said.
Ms. Braham read to the students from Deniece McKessy’s ‘Sunrise to Sunset: Positive Daily Proses for Kids’ which is a collection of prayers and affirmations to guide children throughout their day.
Other members of the team read a variety of books that were all strategically chosen for the young listeners.
“We chose stories that the kids could relate to. Most of the books that we used were local authors [and] some were recommended by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information,” Ms. Braham informed.
The school’s Principal, Rev. Dr. Gillian Jackson, was thankful for the visit and the reading resources that were presented to the 60-year-old institution by the JIS team.
These included posters of Jamaica’s national heroes and symbols as well as colouring books, which were all created by the JIS.
“As the saying goes, ‘reading maketh a full man’. It also maketh a full woman, a full boy and a full girl. Reading is the foundation on which all other skills are built and so, for our students to be able to read, our teachers and other adults must take a keen interest in supporting and supplying them with the requisite tools and resources for them to be able to read,” Principal Jackson said.
She noted that the students appreciated the visit.
“It has made a difference to have the visitors here, who are so lively and vivacious, who have made [books] come alive for them. The looks on their faces tell it all – they wish [JIS] could stay,” she said.