Love of reading gets Cassidy national recognition

A seven-year-old Lotus River girl with a passion for reading and learning new languages, won second place in a national reading competition.

Cassidy Hendricks was supposed to start creche in 2020 when the pandemic hit and had to stay at home during the Covid-19 lockdown but her grandmother Brenda Hendricks, a former high school teacher, made good use of the time and further fostered a love for reading, learning, maths and and literacy in her grandchildren.

She said the lockdown forced her to do more research on how to home school her grandchildren and particularly foundation level for Cassidy and that’s how their lessons started.

Ms Hendricks said her granddaughter was always inquisitive. “From the age of two she started attending creche and she always had an interest in words and numbers and she absolutely loves to learn. My husband and I love to read and we’re always reading so when she saw words on pages she would ask what it said and that is how it started,” she said.

Ms Hendricks would print out worksheets from various sources and the two would sit and do their “work for the day”. Cassidy is currently in Grade 1 and her reading is at a Grade 5 level.

Earlier this year Ms Hendricks entered Cassidy into the South African Literacy Association’s annual English reading festival’s reading competition for Grade 1 home language division. The final took place earlier this month and she achieved 95% and second place overall.

The shy Buck Road Primary School pupil was beaming with pride when she spoke to Southern Mail, but said she wants to do even better next year and take first place. Her favourite books include Dirty Bertie and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and loves to listen to classical music while working and is learning Spanish and French. She also loves helping her parents and grandparents in the kitchen and is thinking of becoming a chef.

“I love to learn new words and my grandmother helped me a lot. I was very happy when we got the competition results, said the seven-year-old.

Teacher Nawaal Brenner said Cassidy is a hard worker and an inspiration for her peers.

“She is such a joy to have in my class and because she works hard and is excited to learn. It also shows that having supportive grandparents, parents and teachers plays an important role. The class is also very excited to see how she has excelled and I always explain to them that it takes more than just coming to school to learn. Learning also has to take place at home,” said the Grade 1 teacher.