Church adopts school
THE Oxygen Life Church in Walmer, hopes to restore life and faith in education by adopting Settlers Park Primary.
The church intends to help the school create a more conducive learning environment for pupils through tackling funding and literacy challenges, and other needs such as boundary fencing and general maintenance.
Settlers Park Primary is a former Model C school that now accommodates more than 640 pupils – mainly from Walmer location.
One of the church members overseeing the project, Christine Rafferty, said: “As a church we started partnering with Settlers Park at the beginning of last year seeking to assist with some of the challenges the school faces. We know that Jesus really cares about these children, and because of what He has done in our lives, we want to be his hands and feet in any ways possible to us,” she said.
There are 15 volunteers who visit the school on a weekly basis and interact with the children, as well as another 30 volunteers, who organise school lunches on a monthly basis.
Most of the volunteers also help with reading projects at the school. The group has extended their reach this year by renovating eight Foundation Phase classrooms, a project they completed at the end of last month.
One of the junior Elsen teachers, Heather Peterson, said no words could express her thanks for help received from Oxygen Life group. “What they are doing for the school, the pupils and surely the parents is just amazing. I have a difficult Elsen class and the [group] comes every Thursday to take them for extra reading and English classes. The progress is exceptional,” Peterson said.
The Oxygen Life group organised an occupational therapist to visit the school and assist pupils who have special education needs.
The group hopes to get more occupational therapists to assess children with learning difficulties, in order to increase the effectiveness of the remedial reading programme they offer.