The Rotary Club of Douglas is very pleased to announce that it is offering dictionaries to all Year 6 pupils attending Douglas primary schools this year. Approximately 400 dictionaries are being distributed to the 12 Douglas primary schools.

Rotary Dictionary 4 Life

The Dictionary 4 Life project in the Isle of Man provides dictionaries to 10-year-old children as an aid to personal literacy and to help develop their facility with the English language. This project is a collaboration between the Rotary Club of Douglas, Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI) and Usborne Publishing Ltd. Improving literacy is a cornerstone within the efforts of Rotary across the World.

Following on from a successful pilot undertaken at the end of the 2014-2015 school year, where dictionaries were supplied to all Year 6 pupils at a single Douglas primary school, it is planned to expand the project this year to include all Douglas based primary schools. We are therefore pleased to be able to offer a copy of the Rotary Dictionary 4 Life to all Year 6 pupils leaving at the end of this current school year in July. This is a gift from the Rotary Club of Douglas.

How will it benefit a child?

It is already appreciated the value of dictionaries even in this age of the Internet but the following are the key benefits, which have been identified during the roll out of this project:

- using dictionaries efficiently children explore spellings, meanings and derivations for example by using alphabetical order, abbreviations and definitions with understanding.
- it helps to develop autonomy and confidence in the learner — one of the core goals of education.
- it promotes books and the printed word.
- it will be a “possession” for the child.
- it will enable both first and second language users to extend and improve the accuracy of their vocabulary.
- it should help children with their homework in secondary education.
- in some homes it may also form a reference work for all the family.

What is it?

The Usborne Illustrated UK Standard edition Dictionary 4 Life comprises 1,000 illustrations, 10,000 entries and 20,000 definitions printed in full colour on leaflet grade paper from a sustainable forest and contains 288 pages. It has a user’s guide, parts of speech, writing English hints, English Today and a history of our language and recommended web sites.

The UK Standard edition Dictionary 4 Life (D4L) has had extraordinary success in the 29 Districts of RIBI and beyond. The D4L promotes British English and encourages children to widen their vocabularies and improve their life chances.

D4L dictionaries have been distributed by over 500 Rotary clubs throughout RIBI and many overseas countries including, Jamaica, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Zambia, Australia, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, India, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Canada.

Rotary Club of Douglas President, Kevin Kneen, says he is extremely proud his Club has been able to expand the number of pupils due to receive the D4L dictionaries in this current school year, and hopes that the benefits will be seen for years to come.

The Minister for Education and Children, Mr Tim Crookall MLC, expressed his gratitude to the Rotary Club of Douglas for this generous gift. He said ‘the development of literacy is one of the cornerstones of successful learning and this generous donation will support hundreds of children in improving their knowledge of language. Dictionaries not only aid spelling but also expand children’s vocabularies, provide examples and advice on how to use words, encourage pupils to understand where words have originated from and reinforce an interest in the language. They can aid independence and encourage pupils to try out new words for themselves. These gifts may well help pupils develop skills that they will develop over a lifetime.’