Mélissa and Dayan, reading champions

The jury for the Micheline Jacques reading competition, a former school principal and senator from Saint-Barthélemy, has reached its verdict. On Thursday July 3, in the territorial library, the names of the winners were announced in the presence of Harry Christophe, vice-rector of the education authority. While all eleven participants were rewarded, it was Mélissa Courage Escax (age 8, Gustavia school group) and Dayan Daridan (age 9, école Saint-Joseph de Lorient) who were named the competition's overall winners.
On Monday June 16, the eleven candidates paraded in front of a panel of judges made up of Katiuscia Hyman (language animator), Andy Armongon (representative of the vice-rector), Angèle Peter (library manager), Céline Zitte-Questel (former teacher at Sainte-Marie de Colombier) and Francius Matignon (2nd vice-president of the Collectivité). The schoolchildren read a long excerpt from the novel "La petite poule qui voulait voir la mer" by Christian Jolibois and Christian Heinrich. Standing in front of the attentive and sympathetic jury, each child's performance was assessed on the basis of fluency, punctuation, intonation and interpretation of the text.
All school representatives received awards. For Sainte-Marie de Colombier, Chloé Brin took first prize, Venicio Gothscheck second and Lara Gréaux Ferreira third. For Saint-Joseph de Lorient, Dayan Davidan took first prize, Baptiste Questel second and Aryaan Chantreau third. Lastly, for the Gustavia school group, Mélissa Courage Escax won first prize, ahead of Lewis Bruneau Legendre and Oliver Gréaux Ospino. School group students Elsa Dairain and Noah Boudon Ruiz received an encouragement prize.
I'm discovering this place (the territorial library), which is a wonderful tool," said Vice-Rector Harry Christophe. It's essential to instill a taste for reading through books. Holding a book in your hands is something special. May all these students continue in this way! "
The two prizewinners, Mélissa Courage Escax and Dayan Davidan, will be entering the CM1 (cours moyens première année) class in September.