Mandela Day 2013 Outreach by Hillwood Primary School (contribution by Lionel Slinger)

-
Happy Birthday, Madiba - from Hillwood learners

  As part of our celebration of Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday, we decided to reach out to our elders.

Learners were asked to donate toiletries and educators were asked to donate socks.
 We were overwhelmed by the outpouring of goodwill from our parents and members of staff.  We collected an enormous amount of toiletries, socks, scarfs, gift bags etc.

Gifts from the givers of Lavender Hill

All the contributions


Lionel Slinger with his learners and Margie


 
From these we made up gift packets for the elderly who reside at Village Aged Centre in St. Montague Village in Lavender Hill. Each class had a representative who assisted with putting together the gift packets, under the supervision of our general assistant (Mrs. Ockhuis).

After school a group of seven learners, Mrs. Ockhuis, Mrs. E. Williams and I went to the the Village Aged Centre.

There we met with Valencia, the centre's head. She directed us to the dining room where we met the residents of the centre, who were quite overwhelmed that they were receiving gifts from especially children from their own community.



Our Senior citizens
After we were welcomed by Valencia, I gave a short explanation to the residents for the purpose of our visit. Mrs. E. Williams led a session of chorus singing, read Ps.23. (Amazingly many of the elderly were able to recite the Psalm as Mrs. Williams was reading it. Their ages ranging from early 60s to 93. This was awesome.), and saying a prayer.

The learners then proceeded to hand out the gift packets to the residents of the Village Aged Centre, who were quite emotional and very happy to receive these gift packets from the learners.
A word of thanks was said by the eldest resident of the centre. We bid them farewell and headed back to school, bubbling over with emotions of joy, amazement and tremendous pride.

I think that is what Mandela meant. Giving really makes the giver feel good or better about him or her.
 




Guest Writer: Lionel Slinger, Acting Principal at Hillwood Primary School
( Thanks, Lionel. Your article says it all.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to my new Youtube Channel, School Corridor

-
Image
I know, I know... this blog has been in hibernation for a loooong while. I finally found a new way of reaching out to you. The School Corridor Tatler is really a super communication channel, but I have upped my game. I have taken the plunge and now I am the proud creator of... Drum roll please... The School Corridor Youtube Channel! I hope you enjoy this very first video of the School Corridor Channel. I am super excited to have you there as well. Let's learn and have fun together! The School Corridor Channel is here to grow, inspire and empower you as leaders at schools or anywhere else. School Corridor Youtube Channel Focus The content will cover three streams: Talks and presentations on leadership research, qualities of great leadership and how you can help yourself grow to become a great leader. Personal well-being will also be a focus. The second stream will focus on Q&As, interviews and book reviews. The third stream will focus on instructional vi
Read more

The launch of Child Protection and Youth Month at Metro South EducationDistrict.

-
Image
  The Social Worker component at our education district launched our Child Protection and Youth Month campaign. The sad reality is that our children are extremely vulnerable and they are subjected to all forms of abuse, neglect and sexual abuse. We were reminded that our children are entrusted to us; that it is our legal and moral responsibility to protect our children against all forms of abuse. Glen van Harte delivering his keynote address. Our district director, Glen van Harte, said, "We need to recommit and reenergize ourselves to look after our children. We have to watch our language. Language has the ability to leave scars that are often far more damaging than physical scars. We have to mediate the language we use with one another and with children. We need to be mindful of the relationships we have with one another and with our teachers. It is also important to look after ourselves so that we can look after our children." Lucinda Pelston, our Sen
Read more

Spine Road High School is a standard bearer in the Mitchell's Plain community.

-
Image
 Spine Road High School in Mitchell's Plain is a standard bearer  in the Mitchell's Plain community. The report card of this remarkable school belies the fact that it is situated in an impoverished area where there are all the social ills of gangsterism, unemployment and broken homes. Let's have a peek at the school's learner performance, the standard by which schools are measured. Mr Najaar posing with three of his Grade 12s. Academic profile of Spine Road High School In the 2014 National Senior Certificate examination, Spine Road High School made history: they were the first school to achieve a 100% pass rate in the history of Mitchell's Plain. In the 2015 NSC Final examination 280 matriculants sat for the examination. The school achieved a 99,3% pass rate and an 80% Bachelors pass rate. In the Systemic Test 2015, the grade 9's achieved an 84% pass rate in Mathematics and 96% in English. The national pass rate for Grade 9 Maths is about 22%. T
Read more