A DISTRICT STORY MAKING AN IMPACT

GANBOLD and EARLY READING ADVENTURES – RYDE ROTARY

Students at Meadowbank Public School in northwest Sydney speak more than 50 languages.

More than 85% speak a language other than English at home and half have Mongolian heritage.

Ryde Rotary members were very surprised at the high proportion of students with Mongolian heritage at the school and were concerned that reading at commencement was such a challenge.

POTENTIAL PROJECT

A project team formed including PDG Kalma, PE Kathryn Dodd and PE Michelle Westland (Social Impact Network), who is also a Meadowbank Primary School mum. The team determined the potential for RC Ryde to make a difference to the literacy levels of students entering Kindergarten at the School.

Thanks go to the project team PDG Kalma McLellan, Ryde President Kathryn Dodd and Rotary Social Impact Network President Michelle Westlund with the backing of the Rotary Club of Ryde.

The steps could include:

Partnership with Ryde Library to source Mongolian language readers
Partnership with local primary and high schools to write and illustrate pre-school readers
Provision of Meadowbank Street Libraries with signage in Mongolian
Provision of Mongolian language preschool readers
Targeted inclusion of Mongolian families in CMRC 3-5 school prep classes

The Story:

Two mischievous twins bake a delicious pie, but to make it perfect, they need one special ingredient.

So, they wander deep into the forest and stumble upon a strange berry to include.

After the pie is baked, something mysterious happens and suddenly the pie is gone.

The twins ask their older brother Ganbold to help track down the escaped pie.

Will they find the missing pie, or will it remain lost forever? [You’ll have to read the book to get the full story!!]

GANBOLD BACKGROUND

In early September 2025 the Rotary Club of Ryde was addressed by Deputy Principal Alexandra Crawford and Mark Fenech (teacher of English as an Additional Language or Dialect)

It has grown from 367 students to 658 in seven years, supported by 49 teachers across all classes and specialist areas, and two Deputy Principals.

The learning focus is on the three R’s – reading, writing and ‘rithmetic – including learning analogue and digital skills, mastering sounds and words then sentences.

There is a strong history of oral storytelling in Mongolian, but only a recent history of writing stories for younger readers.

With parents and carers themselves learning English while working and settling into life in Australia, few of the students are able to read when entering school.

When the Rotary Club of Ryde visited Ryde Library they heard from Lindy Alwis and Barbie Bates from Paint the Inner West REaD, as well as Cicily Ponnor (Library Programs And Engagement Officer) and Gabbi Wylie (Children’s and Young Adult Librarian) promoting the 1000 Books Before School campaign.

Their message was that reading before school was essential, in any language. And it does not matter if the child is doing the reading or the parent is reading to the child.

The two events came together to prompt investigations by PDG Kalma McLellan on what options might be available for Rotary to support those Mongolian early learners in enhancing their literacy levels before school.

INVESTIGATIONS

Investigations included chatting to many local organisations to source materials and resources for the local families which could assist the literacy levels, however there was little success:

The local Community Migrant Resource Centre (CMRC) revealed that they were unaware of these ethnic proportions. CMRC are very keen to incorporate targeted families in their 3-5yr old school prep classes, as well as reading support on any level. Further discussions have been offered with a specialist in this area in the future.
West Ryde Child and Family Health Centre provided the same response, with little interaction or understanding of the situation.
Ryde Library reflected their understanding of how the Mongolian population in the local community had changed over the last 12 months. However, their shelves included no publications in Mongolian. Interviews and investigations at Ryde Library revealed that no books are available to the Library written in Mongolian. Their investigations throughout their broad Library network returned zero publications of any sort, eliminating the Library as a source of ongoing resources.

RC Ryde was able to locate a children’s book targeting those who wish to learn Mongolian i.e. English to Mongolian. The pictorial dictionary covers many categories of words – colours, numbers, people, animals, letters, vehicles, actions etc and is ideal for prospective travellers. Meadowbank teachers believe it will be a great resource for both those Mongolian students entering school, and also as a teacher resource across all classes where Mongolian students are members. Copies have been provided to the school and to the Director of Education for the Ryde Area Network, Michael Hooker for distribution to other schools.

POTENTIAL PROJECT

Partnership with Ryde Library to source Mongolian language readers
Partnership with local primary and high schools to write and illustrate pre-school readers
Provision of Meadowbank Street Libraries with signage in Mongolian
Provision of Mongolian language preschool readers
Targeted inclusion of Mongolian families in CMRC 3-5 school prep classes

A meeting in October with teaching staff at Meadowbank became very exciting as the teachers embraced the notion of senior students using their creative writing and artistic skills to create a resource for the younger learners, and their younger siblings. The book project was born.

STORY WRITING

Staff had mentioned that many of their students were both good story tellers and good illustrators. The students were in a position to capture the tales and fables familiar to their Mongolian heritage for classmates to illustrate. The excited teachers left with real enthusiasm and a great project for the last term of school.

Within a few short weeks, there was a team of story tellers and a team of illustrators, all with Mongolian heritage, who did not want to let the project go. Teachers found the Year Six students working on the project through their lunch breaks and in any possible spare time.

By the end of Term 4 the Year 6 students had completed the story, in both Mongolian and English, together with matching illustrations describing the adventures of Ganbold and the Magic Pie.

GANBOLD AND THE MAGIC PIE

The story is inspired by two traditional tales told to children in Mongolia. The students all loved hearing these stories when they were young and wanted to share them, so they are never forgotten. The authors created this book to support English learning in their community and to encourage a love of reading. They also wanted it to help Mongolian children continue reading and connect with their language and culture.

The Story:

Two mischievous twins bake a delicious pie, but to make it perfect, they need one special ingredient. So, they wander deep into the forest and stumble upon a strange berry to include. After the pie is baked, something mysterious happens and suddenly the pie is gone.

The twins ask their older brother Ganbold to help track down the escaped pie. Will they find the missing pie, or will it remain lost forever? [You’ll have to read the book to get the full story!!]

Authors and illustrators:

The story was written and edited by Ujin, Misheel, Anand, Nemungua and Dulguun.
The book was illustrated by Nandin, Gegeen, Elungua, Nemungua, Lana and Tselmuun.

PROOFING

How do you proof-read a publication in a language you cannot read? This turned out to be an interesting question to answer! PE Kathryn engaged with school parents, AI, translators and others on many occasions to ensure the letters being used really reflected the intent of each and every word. But it took a visit to the school by the Ambassador from Mongolia to finally ensure each letter was presented exactly as it should be, and we cannot thank him enough! Who knew that the letter Y could be both masculine and feminine!

PUBLISHING

Given the potential for a real story, publishing considerations began included licensing, copyright, and printing costs. PE Michelle developed an appropriate copyright waiver, should a story be delivered by the school students. The hope was to make the book available as broadly as possible to any Mongolian family or pre-schooler to enable reading by family or learners in any setting.

As part of this process Lil Readers was established as a brand to enable future publications in any language and streamlined applications for RC Ryde.

PDG Kalma determined that printing cost parameters depended on page count, page size, paper finishes and volumes. Investigations covered various suppliers so that appropriate funding could be sought and approved from RC Ryde.

PRESENTING

In early March 2026, Meadowbank teacher and book champion Lachlan Johnston presented the finished story and the creation journey to the RC Ryde. He had taken up the challenge for the story and it was adopted with gusto by Year 6 students at Meadowbank Public School (now many in Year 7 at Marsden High School). When they started, the students had just finished a course in digital art and were able to apply that learning to develop a story to share and the artwork to illustrate it. Classical stories from Mongolia were melded into one, story boarded and illustrated with characters in traditional dress and headwear.

The club event was attended by many of the authors and illustrators, together with very proud family members.

At the RC Ryde Changeover, Lachlan Johnson was recognised for his extensive input to the project with a PHF, received with much applause. Copies of the published books, complete with ISBN, were presented to Lachlan and Meadowbank Primary School Principal Cecilia Parada as well as the local State Member, the Ryde Mayor, and Department of Education attendees.

The books were presented to the Meadowbank Primary School Librarian the following day to squeals of delight. And there is already another Mongolian adventure on the way with the 2026 Year 6 students!!!

Thanks go to the project team PDG Kalma McLellan, Ryde President Kathryn Dodd and Rotary Social Impact Network President Michelle Westlund with the backing of the Rotary Club of Ryde.