A boys’ only group that involves adult male readers is helping a targeted group of students at Rockdale Public School to improve their literacy.

Stage 2 teacher Joanna Provino said the boys’ reading group was established this year after analysis of Basic Skills Test data showed the boys’ comprehension and reading levels were below state average.

The group – titled Boys Rule – gave students a chance to read material of interest to them with male teachers at the school and fathers who volunteer to help out.

“The fathers make two visits a term and show the boys how important education is in their life,” Miss Provino said. “The boys love to listen to the men read and their expression because some don’t get a lot of that at home.”

John Glossop, a Stage 2 teacher at Rockdale Public, said “role-modelling” reading to the boys helped “get them more engaged, more involved in education”.

“To get dads, uncles, older brothers involved – it is quite beneficial for [students] to see older males read,” Mr Glossop said.

The group of 20 Year 3 and 4 boys had also worked on literacy projects that appealed to their interests such as information reports on cars and event recounts of rugby league matches.

The boys wrote and illustrated a comic book – Are you bully-proof? – in similar vein to the popular Captain Underpants series.

“The book is about bullying and how to prevent bullying in the playground,” Miss Provino said. “They came up with characters, concepts and names.”

Miss Provino said since the group was established 90 per cent of boys had shown “great improvement” in their comprehension and reading levels. The boys’ behaviour had improved and they were “engaged and interested, listening and being attentive in the classroom”.

Miss Provino’s implementation of the literacy initiative was just one project associated with a leader-ship succession training program – run by retired school principal Cheryl Bell – that involves 14 primary and high school teachers in the Bankstown, St George and Sutherland Shire areas.

The program, part of Ms Bell’s doctorate research, was designed to motivate experienced teachers to enhance their skills and take on leadership roles.

“The program engages participants in a range of learning processes to broaden their understanding of the nature of leadership, foster their attitudes and beliefs about leadership and develop their expertise in dealing with events in the school context,” Ms Bell said. “The teachers worked together using peer-coaching skills to support each other in planning and implementing their school-based projects.”

Miss Provino said the leadership program had given her the confidence to lead other, more senior teachers.

“At 29, I’m the youngest teacher in Stage 2 [at Rockdale Public] and I didn’t want them to feel I was telling them what to do or stomping on anyone’s toes,” Miss Provino said. “But this program has taught me how to communicate as a leader … so that we have success at the end.”