Academy Pupils Put Pen to Paper for Dictionaries For Life

Rotary Clubs across the country have been gifting The Usborne Illustrated English Dictionary to hundreds, or possibly even thousands of schools and academies for decades now. This Rotary project is usually known as ‘Dictionaries for Life or D4L. It is fair to say that pupils and teachers are usually quick to thank Rotary for providing these wonderful books and often point out that the children much prefer the immediacy and tangibility of the dictionary to the alternative and more modern method of using a search engine like Google to find the meaning of a word or alternatively, how to spell it.

Something unusual happened recently to King’s Lynn Priory Rotarian, Dennis Barter. A thick package was delivered to Dennis containing scores of thank you letters from pupils of St. Germans Academy who had recently received a dictionary from Rotary. 

How thoughtful of the teachers at St. Germans Academy to ask their pupils to take the trouble to send these letters of thanks. They are all thoughtfully written. Some are illustrated with hand drawn pictures of images seen in the dictionaries and some even feature the odd spelling mistake or two, thereby demonstrating the real value of having a dictionary to hand. 

One thank you letter from Olivia Coote, which was beautifully written says, and I quote, “ I personally think your the best Rotary Club. ( Because your the only one I know ! )” 

You’ll go far Olivia. !!