Visit to Sea View Basic School
Monday 27th April 2015
After 4 hours driving through St Ann and St Mary we arrived at Portland. My visit was to Sea View Basic School, Long Bay, Portland. The gates were padlocked so we called through the window and a teacher came out. I explained that I was from London and my charity had recently given them a donation to purchase paint for the school. She went and got the Principal and I explained the reason for my visit.
I had a tour of the school which consisted of an office, a kitchen, where the Cook was preparing lunch of plantain and cornmeal porridge, girls and boys bathrooms and 3 classrooms, each was colourfully decorated, walls had alphabet, numbers, pictures etc, rooms had coloured chairs and tables, books and toys. There was a staircase leading to a small concrete courtyard.
She introduced me to each class and their teachers.
Class 2: 4 year olds
Teacher: Larenn Donegan, Assistant Teacher
Class 2: 3 year olds
Teachers: Nicola Wright and Audrey Cole, Assistant Teachers
Class 3: 5 year olds
Teacher: Claudia Smith, Principal
From left to right: Larenn Donegan, Claudia Smith, Audrey Cole and Nicola Wright
The boys wore: green checked shirts and khaki trousers with belts. The girls wore: green checked dresses, hair accessories green/white, both wear green/white socks, black shoes. The children were immaculate dressed.
The Class 3 children whispered “what’s her name” and I told them Angela which when prompted was repeated back to me. A sleepy 3 year old hugged me after waking up thinking it was home time and I was his mum! The Principal explained that they have 49 on role, but as one bright 4 year old informed me ‘some were at the clinic’, 9 were absent. They were all charming.
The outside walls had been painted from grey to red during the Easter Holidays but the Principal explained that they wait until Summer Holidays to repaint inside because it involves removing things from walls, furniture etc.
The Principal allowed me to take photos of the children and reluctantly pictures of themselves. I ended by visit by signing the visitors book.
Sea View is not part of the Basic Schools Foundation but any institution that helps young people deserves our support they are our (Jamaica’s) future!
– Angela
