Meet Nina Miller
Nina has been the joint Duffy Coordinator at Castlecliff Primary School in Whanganui for more than 15 years, while Castlecliff School has been a part of DBIH for 23 years. She says the excitement from the kids is what keeps her continuing as her school’s Duffy Coordinator and says “When you go into the classrooms to hand out the brochures, the kids are so excited to choose their books. They love the agency of being able to choose their own books, and are so excited to share what they’ve chosen with everyone. When the kids hear there’s a Duffy Role Model Assembly coming up, their excitement grows. These assemblies are a big deal as the kids get to hear from a Role Model, as well as looking forward to receiving the books that they chose. Our sponsors, the Rotary Club of Whanganui and Emmett Civil Construction, are invited along to these assemblies to present the boxes of books to each class. We make a big deal of thanking our sponsors so that the students understand someone has put their hand in their pockets to give them their books. We also take our visitors into a classroom after the assembly so the kids can show off their books. It’s great to see them chatting away about the books they’ve received and what other books they have at home. Our sponsors get to see where their money goes and what joy that money brings.”
At Castlecliff they have a great relationship with their funding partners The Rotary Club of Whanganui and Emmett Civil Construction. Nina and her principal are the Duffy team, and they have worked really hard to build the relationships, and to include their funding partners in the DBIH programme – inviting them along not only to the Role Model Assemblies but also to the Duffy Theatre Show each year, which is always popular.
Nina believes in the importance of book ownership as setting the foundations for normalising reading for pleasure. “The book ownership has been so transformative – the sense of value and ownership (that the books belong to just them). We also remind them how to look after their books (keeping them on a shelf away from younger siblings). The aim is that owning books and reading is normal; ‘I own books, I have books at home and I’ve read this many books’. You can’t have keen readers without promoting a positive attitude towards books and reading.”
Nina also makes sure that her school receives the two free books each book offer as they have a very small library budget, so six books a year into the school library is welcomed. “We always hold up the two free books we’ve received for the library in the next assembly – so the kids can see that their hard work in choosing the books has enabled us to receive two free books, plus they can also check those two books out when they’re next in the library. We also use the Caught Being Good books slightly differently – some are handed out as awards at weekly assemblies, and some are put in the library for everyone to share. The kids are really excited to see those books in the library – they’ll tell you about how they have this book at home or how they ordered it in the latest Duffy brochure.”
Nina firmly believes in the value of the Duffy programme and the benefits it brings. She sees being a Duffy School Coordinator “as a joy and not a chore.”