OUR Impact in the School
Our School Projects
Samarithan feet
Louisa, Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Development’s administrator, was invited to be part of the Samaritan Feet Organisation’s afternoon visit to the Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School.
A group of grade 7 learners were invited for this special afternoon. These learners had their feet washed and dried by caring teachers and volunteers, giving them an opportunity to reinsure the learners how wonderful and special they are. Finally, they received a new pair of socks and school shoes. To most it was their first new pair of shoes and socks.
Beat the bully
Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Development was fortunate to be part of the Beat The Bully Project, which had an excellent opportunity to launch their unique program with an in-depth, hands-on intervention approach on the 23rd of July 2018 at Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School for six months. It was an initiative to coach teachers and youth workers on intervening between youth to reduce bully incidents in schools. It was the same approach used in business conflict management training to bring about better working relationships.
The approach involved the whole school, weekly for 30-minute lessons concentrating and focusing on one skill per week in handling bullying or being a victim. The youth worker on the premises assisted the youth in applying the learned skills and mediating to solve situations timeously. They also helped teach the youth to make responsible decisions about relationships by using self-awareness, self-management and social skills.
The Beat the bully project identified the main bully problems at Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School. Through character building, it brought children to an emotional understanding and emotional maturity level to know how to manage these situations that occur in their lives daily.
Bullying is normal and part of learning how to handle life at an early stage. Therefore, we aimed to work in Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School, where there was a better chance to form the thinking process of a child’s brain and bring them to a better understanding of bullying early on. Children forget what they were taught in the heat of a bully moment, and the nature seated in the subconscious mind reacts to a situation.
With the help of youth workers at the school, during break times, and after school, on sports grounds, we could teach the kids in the heat of the moment how to handle the situation and be victorious in a win-win situation. With the permission of the principal and school board, we could help with the endless bullying situations which occur during school times and take up valuable time of the school staff.
Children tend to build a closer and more open relationship with the youth worker. Therefore, it is sometimes easier to identify problems at home or abuse to children, which we bring to the attention of the school.
Kambro diggers
On the 3rd of September 2018, Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Development had a golden opportunity to facilitate the KKNK renowned Educational Kambro Diggers Performance. The cast members are all coloured workers from the surrounding Oudtshoorn farms. The focus of the show is substance, sexual and physical abuse. At the end of the show, the audience was taught the options they have, which enable them to make the ‘right’ decision.
The afternoon show was mainly for the ± 1,300 learners of Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School and the evening for the community.
Weeks after the show, the kids still talked about it during their Life Skill classes. This allowed teachers to help kids affected by abuse deal with it, even assisting them in getting professional help.
The more prominent and older community members were so mesmerized that they shouted comments to the actors who made the show come alive even more.
Train trip
“A group of 40 children from Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School were given a chance by the Ceres Rail Company to hop on a passenger steam locomotive and enjoy a one-hour train ride to the Elgin Railway Market, where they were treated to fun, games and food, on Saturday 20 April.
It was a monumental moment as its the first time in 20 years that the train stopped at the station in Sir Lowry’s Pass – and it was also a first time experience for all the children. The initiative was organised by Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Village (now Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Development), a non-profit company that aims to uplift the community.” Read more in the Distrikspos article. Photo by Yaseen Gaffar.
Recycling
Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Development NPC is in partnership with Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School to launch the new Recycling Project as an EcoSchool Initiative on the 1st of March 2022. The EcoSchool Initiative was handicapped by the COVID Pandemic, but the teachers and learners are excited for the grand restart.
Recycling Companies have come aboard so that Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School get the full financial benefit of the income obtained from recyclable goods. The Primary School is a ‘No School Fee’ school in desperate need of additional funding for the everyday operation costs.
Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School is part of The Glass Recycling Company’s annual Glass recycling competition. Private partners and surrounding estates, restaurants and companies are contributing by donating their recyclables to benefit the school even more.
The learners can swop their tokens towards goods in the Swop Shop like food, school supplies etc. or save them towards special trips on the Ceres Steam Train, to the beach, to their favourite restaurant, oceanarium and personal things like bicycles.
So, recycling teaches the community kids to go from hand-downs to hand-ups where the hard workers are being rewarded.
Waste Act (Act No. 59 of 2008) (NEMWA), the Western Cape (WC) Government: Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has compiled its 2nd Generation Integrated Waste Management Plan (IWMP).
The WC IWMP provides strategic direction in the province to improve integrated waste management (IWM) practices. This plan documents the IWMP process, reviews the Department’s 1st Generation IWMP (2011) implementation and provides a status quo of waste management in the province. Furthermore, it documents the four new waste management strategic goals for the province and formulates responses to the priority needs identified during the planning process. An implementation plan has also been developed.
Under the above legislation, Sir Lowry’s Pass Creative Development & Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School partnered with Project Waste2Money EcoSchool Initiative to clean the Village and give the school and financial boost.