Merkinch Primary School in Inverness is hub for Highlands first Festival of Reading during coronavirus lockdown
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A teacher at an Inverness primary school has set up the region’s first ever online Festival of Reading in a bid to enhance digital literacy.
The Merkinch Reading Festival is the brainchild of teacher Niall Ridgway who came up with the idea after watching a number of online music festivals which were broadcast as a replacement for live events cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The event is being live streamed using a function within video conferencing software which can accommodate 100,000 viewers.
The festival is a celebration of reading and learning and takes place online today until 5pm.
Thanks to hard work behind the scenes by Highland’s Digital Development Team, which includes head teachers Tania Mackie and Robert Quigley, the live stream function has now been made available to all Highland schools. Highland is one of the only areas in Scotland with this functionality.
Previously Google Meet’s own video conferencing element only allowed up to 250 people to be logged in at once, but due to the streaming function within the software the school is able to open up the festival to all schools in Highland.
Mr Ridgway said: “The Merkinch Reading Festival marks a huge step in the development of digital literacy across Highland Council schools as well as within Merkinch Primary.
“Twenty-one members of staff at Merkinch will read stories or extracts from their favourite books, with the majority of these stories being shared via the e-book format. This supports all learners to clearly see the books, read along, and enjoy the images.
“Teachers in Highland enjoy a daily drop-in video call and I mentioned the idea during one of those and it just took off from there.”
Head of education services, Nicky Grant, said: “Niall’s very exciting reading festival will build on the current interest in live streaming, which offers additional potential for presenting to larger than normal audiences, as young people and staff return to school in August.”
Chairman of the education committee, Councillor John Finlayson, said: “Once again I am delighted to see the innovative approaches being promoted across the Highlands to develop online learning and provide access to a wide audience and I would like to thank everyone involved.”
