Parents and children celebrate words at exhibition

Castleton Primary School children taking part in a word activity with Mr Cook

Children and parents took part in a special ‘laying the foundations’ day today (Thursday 7 April 2011) at Castleton Primary School in a bid to promote words as part of the ‘Hello’ campaign.

‘Laying the foundations’ is all about the need to build on words to be able to communicate. The school has spent a week working on various activities to promote words and today they came together to exhibit their fun ways of using words.

Each class was involved and the different activities included a story telling tent, a tree with words and definitions on and biscuit fun – where the children could make biscuits with different letters and words on.

The Hello Campaign is a national movement to mark the year of communication and it aims to make communication for all children and young people a priority in homes and schools across the country in 2011.

The campaign’s April theme is ‘It's not just about talking.’ Children learn to talk by listening, taking turns and interacting with others. These are deemed the ‘building blocks of communication.’
The school’s Barry Cook, a teacher in SALTAC (Speech and Language Team at Castleton) said the aim of the day was to “celebrate and promote words>”
He added: “It is going really well, it is really stimulating for the children and it links school and home by giving parents the opportunity to talk with their children and go around the activities.”