Ashley Smith (left), who has evolved from non-reader to top reader in just two years, shakes hands with Green Island Primary School's reading coordinator, Dianne Allen, during the school's Literacy Festival on Tuesday. - photos by adrian frater

Western Bureau:

Extraordinary, exceptional or even extra special are a few of the adjectives used to describe six-year-old Gabrielle Elizabeth Salmon, a grade one student at Green Island Primary School in Hanover.

To hear the diminutive youngster, who is a regular contributor of poems and short stories to The Gleaner's Children's Own, read is a moving experience at best. She flows error-free from page to page, making a mockery of whatever reading material from the school's collection of reading books placed before her.

"She is very special," said the school's principal, Phillip Hall, displaying a placard of some of her work published in the Children's Own. "Look at her penmanship. For her age ... it is simply unbelievable."

Product of environment

When one checks Gabrielle's background, it leaves very little doubt that she is a product of her environment, as her mother, Lorna Salmon, a grade four teacher at Green Island Primary, is one of the architects of the school's phenomenal reading programme, which has been producing exceptional results.

"I have been reading since I was four," said a confident-sounding Gabrielle, whose grade one teacher, Mrs Frances, Christie is also a member of the school's powerful reading committee.

"We have a very gifted grade one class with Gabrielle and several other children doing extremely well," said Mrs Christie. "Part of my strategy is to get them to read aloud to build their pronunciation and confidence. We also spend a lot of time getting them to make sentences from the words they learn."

For many, Gabrielle's brilliance is nature's way of repaying her mother for the beyond-the-call-of-duty approach she adopted when the school's reading programme was being developed two years ago. Today she works with a special group of 30 students.

"I try to develop a close relationship with them and try to get them to believe in themselves," said Salmon, who has created an incentive programme for her students, using her own money.

Salmon, a graduate of Mico Teachers' College (now The Mico University College) has also tried to get parents involved in their children's reading, sometimes including activities for parents in the homework.

Top reader, six-year-old Gabrielle Salmon (left) shows off her reading skills to extraordinary teacher and mother, Lorna Salmon, during Tuesday's Literacy Festival at the Green Island Primary School in Hanover.