WATCH: Visiting The Gateway School for World Read Aloud Day

Every year, World Read Aloud Day is celebrated on 1 February, to call attention to the importance of reading aloud, and this year the Northsider spent it at The Gateway School.

According to LitWorld, the organisation which helped found World Read Aloud Day, the special day “calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud, sharing stories, and the idea of literacy as a human right by bringing communities together across the world to read aloud and change the world”. This year, World Read Aloud day was celebrated by millions of people around the globe who grabbed a book and read it aloud.

The Roodepoort Northsider decided to take part in the special day by making a visit to The Gateway School in Ruimsig, a primary and high school for learners with special needs. We were taken to meet the Grade 5 class, which is made up of 15- and 16-year-old learners and taught by Anchen Breedt and Angelique Havenga.

Anchen wished to emphasise the fact that their learners are just like anybody else to each other. “Our learners might have special needs, but what the world sees as ‘special’ is our ‘normal’,” she said. “We love every child at the school, as they also love each other.”

For our visit, we were treated to three readings from three learners in the class. Mzwandile Ngcobo read an extract from the Bible, Hayley Webber read an extract from The Princess Party, and Rosy van Wyk read a piece from the Enid Blyton classic, The Magic Brush. To end it all off, the Northsider journalist read the story of Aladdin to the learners.

You can watch bits from the experience right here:

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