Students are expected to start arriving in Cooke Park from 9.15am onwards. Come along, bring a book have a read and enjoy in the fun.
On 6th–8th of September 2023 we will celebrate our 9th National Conference, on Wiradjuri Country at Parkes, NSW, the birthplace of Paint The Town Red (PTTR). Rhonda Brain, the then principal of Parkes Public School started PTTR with six other local school principals and it’s in over 100 communities across Australia.
Our theme is Storytelling and Told Stories. We have been liaising with local elders in planning and preparation.
It is fitting that it will fall in National Child Protection Week and on Indigenous Literacy Day. Told Stories give every child everywhere a fair go at learning who they are, and where they have come from. The Conference will begin with Indigenous storytelling the very best and right place to start. We’re an early literacy movement. Encouraging people to read with children from birth, so they start school ready to learn.
Our brains do most of their critical development in the first three years of life. A baby’s brain doubles in weight in the first year, tripling by age three.
Every time we read, talk, sing and rhyme with children brain connections grow, and build the foundations for learning. Children with good foundational early literacy skills arrive at school:
• able to communicate their needs.
• understanding conversations
• able to take direction, and
• ready to learn to read and write, with a healthy brain.
PTTR have been helping children since 1997. From humble beginnings, PTTR has grown into a thriving community of over 100 local groups, helping over 500,000 pre-school aged children get ready to learn at school.
The movement is making a difference. If children start school without early literacy skills, no matter how good the teaching, these initial cognitive gaps increase as children go through school. Head along and help Paint The Town Red.