Thank you to the 1000s of people across Australia who have grown the PTTR movement through 2018 – Aboriginal Elders who lead their local PTTRB&Y communities, volunteer readers in shopping centres, emergency services staff and local businesses who take the time to share books and stories with children, librarians, primary and high school students who read to their baby brothers and sisters, child and family workers who incorporate early literacy into everything they do, the incredible PTTR local co-ordinators who somehow find the time to do amazing things, generous probono  workers like Lifeline who have supplied us with over 1000 books this year, Good360 and Men Sheds, the AMP Foundation, the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, PRRR and many more. You have all helped a child discover the thrill of books and language.

A4 Christmas bookmarks 2018

Paint the Town Read Ltd turned 5 yesterday. We wish to thank everyone who has helped us with their time, wisdom, enthusiasm, probono support, humour and money.

The Board is thrilled that now 78 communities across Australia — from Pannawonica to the Pacific, from Cairns to Casterton, are working to engage everyone to read, talk, sing, rhyme and draw with their babies from birth, so that they will be ready for learning at school.

And there is no better way to celebrate than to invite you all to attend our 7th National Early Literacy Conference in Perth 20–22 March 2019.

The theme is Books and Bonding Build Brains — that’s what the (Fremantle) Doctor Orders.

Register here. 

This NAIDOC Week 2018, we remember, pay our respects to and thank the  many many Aunties, colleagues and friends who have directed the building of  Paint the Town READ, Black and Yellow across Australia. Thank you for your wisdom, love, forgiveness, laughter and patience as you have led and taught your non-Indigenous friends, for the sake of your children and grandchildren.

Follow us on Facebook this week as we reflect on and thank a representative group of these women from across Australia.

ALIA’s National Simultaneous Storytime  is a tremendous annual initiative, which Paint the Town REaD communities celebrated across Australia.

Many years ago, I was principal of a country school. It bothered me that too many of our children had trouble learning to read and write. It bothered me into action.

In my school we made a huge effort. Best practice. It was a blitz. With great results, right?
Well, no. We had results, but they were not great. For all our efforts, the results were — as a teacher I hate admitting this — disappointing. This got me thinking. Are some children just doomed? Or were we missing something? I looked wider. What I found changed everything.

Study after study showed that a child’s ability to learn to read and write at school is set in the first five years of life. The first three years, in fact. School was too late. And what’s needed in those early years? Simple. Yet I could see that it wasn’t happening in many families.

Spend time with children every day, from birth — talking, singing, rhyming, reading — and you’ll prepare them to read and write at school. It’s from this insight that Paint the Town REaD was born.

‘Painting the town red’ carries the notion of celebration, of ‘doing’ the town, of saturating it with excitement and enthusiasm. That’s the literacy culture we want to generate. We pull together community groups, agencies and businesses, and we inspire them to integrate this culture into everything they do with (and as) families. And to keep inventing the most fun and creative ways to do so.

It’s a growing, nationwide network of people whose influence can change thousands of lives, long term.

Will you join us?

Rhonda Brain, OAM