A devoted West Lothian nursery worker has been hailed a hero for helping teach children to read.
Scottish Book Trust has revealed the recipient of the 2021 Bookbug Hero Award as Kylie Watt, a nursery practitioner at Longridge Nursery.
Nominated by her colleagues, Kylie has been recognised for dedicating her working career of over 20 years to children and early years education.
The Bookbug Hero Award was announced during Bookbug Week, an annual celebration of Scotland’s national book-gifting programme and Song and Rhyme Sessions.
This year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Splash, and events include: a brilliant story and craft and session from Bookbug Week illustrator Helen Kellock and an online Splish Splash Bookbug Session via Facebook.
Bookbug has been central to the nursery’s inclusive and nurturing approach as they returned after a prolonged lockdown due to Covid-19. Kylie’s work helped transition the children back into the nursery environment and also helped make parents feel involved and valued.
She delivered reading sessions in small groups, using books to introduce and consolidate learning objectives such as exploring and recognising rhyme, counting syllables in words, letter recognition, story sequences and retelling the story.
The stories also linked in with health and wellbeing, supporting children in their return to nursery.
Kylie’s sessions explored emotions and feelings to enable children to express their own during a difficult transitional period of settling into the new routine of Covid-19 nursery life.
Kylie has been praised for using Bookbug as a consistent point of involvement and contact for parents, to build a bridge between the home and nursery setting.
She has equipped parents with information on how to use Bookbug bags well and spend quality reading and bonding time with their children.
She also maintained online communication with parents during the pandemic. The nursery also uses a self-developed book-borrowing scheme, which became more important than ever with the closure of libraries during the pandemic.
Kylie has provided parents with resources so they are able to explore and address many issues with their children that they may have been anxious about or lacked the knowledge or skills to discuss at a stage appropriate level.
These resources supported the parent-child bond by dealing with events cooperatively and holistically in a method that a child can understand.
Kylie also fostered a nursery bedtime read initiative as an addition to the Bookbug Explorer bag gifting.
She’s delighted to win the award, adding: “I am so proud to be announced as the winner of the Bookbug Hero Award.
“It was a lovely surprise that my colleagues and parents from Longridge Nursery Class nominated me and gave me recognition for doing a job I love.
“The award confirms that what I am doing to promote literacy development within our early year’s setting is having a positive impact on families and children.
“Bookbug Explorer Bags have been an important part of promoting a love of books and the book bags have really helped us on our literacy journey because they give all children the opportunity to access high quality children’s literature and literacy resources.”
The Bookbug Hero Award is run in association with Walker Books and seeks to honour someone working with Bookbug who has used the programme to make a real difference to the lives of the young children, families and the communities they work with.
Kylie will receive a bundle of picture books worth £500 from Walker Books.
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said: “Congratulations to Kylie Watt on winning the 2021 Bookbug Hero Award.
“In an especially difficult year, Kylie has gone above and beyond to support the children of Longridge Nursery, their parents and her colleagues.
“It is wonderful to hear how Bookbug has been used to assist transition back into the nursery, and how a strong reading culture has supported the young people’s health and wellbeing. Our thanks to Walker Books for sponsoring this important award.”
Parent Kayleigh Brand, said: “Mrs Watt is an amazing member of staff at Longridge Nursery.
“She is loved by both the children she helps and teaches, and by parents.
“She always goes above and beyond for the kids, making sure they get every opportunity to practice in multiple activities, such as the Bookbug bags and big book reading packs they get weekly.
“She also makes sure parents are aware of what is going on, even in these difficult times.
“Mrs Watt is an amazing asset to the nursery and deserves to be rewarded for all of her hard work!”
Miss Harte from Longridge Nursery added: “Kylie is fabulous. Her commitment to ensuring each child gets a pack of stories at the Bookbug event and each week with her lending library is second to none.
“When it’s Book Week Scotland, she always comes up with a new and inventive way to engage
the children with stories and makes it exciting for the staff team to be involved.”
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