Last week, Western Bulldogs star Robert Murphy visited Thomas Carr College of Tarneit to launch their BALL project.

The BALL (Boys and Lifelong Learning) project is used to improve teenage boy’s attitudes to reading. Initially it will see 15 boys from year 8 take part in the 7 week literacy program, which includes weekly skills sessions during school hours, involving guest readers, small group discussions with mentors from Victoria University, online blogging and a workshop with the author of the book being studied, ‘Cairo Jim and the Sunken Sarcophagus of Seheret’. They will also go on a special excursion at the end of the program. At the end of this 7 weeks, the school hopes it will lead to an extended program.

To celebrate the launch of the great initiative Western Bulldogs star Robert Murphy visited the students and read the opening pages of the novel. The College made the request for Murphy’s appearance as they felt he would be the perfect candidate, Nikolas Brudenell, Thomas Carr Literacy Coordinator said “he is a highly literate communicator and successful AFL footballer; consequently we couldn’t imagine a more suitable role model to promote the practice of reading among teenage boys from the Western Suburbs.”

Testing has shown that boy’s literacy results lag behind those of girls and there is also a disparity in their reading habits. Many of the boys in the program read avidly when they were in primary school, but interest drops off around the ages 14 to 15. We hope that this program continues with success and that we can start to reverse this trend, starting here in the Western Suburbs.