GLENWOOD-BASED Open Air School hosted an Entrepreneurship Day on the first day of spring on Friday, September 1, which featured their Grade Seven learners selling a range of food products as well as offering jumping castles, table tennis and chess for attendees.

Open Air School is a BEE-accredited NPO that offers specialised schooling for children with physical impairments, educating learners from pre-primary to matric.

From mild to severe, the school accepts learners with all levels of disabilities. These include cerebral palsy, visual and hearing impairments, injury-induced impairments and hand/eye coordination problems, to name a few.

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The Open Air School plays a vital role in educating physically challenged youngsters, empowering them to become independent, well-adjusted people.

According to Shaaera Bhyat, EMS teacher at the school and the Entrepreneurship Day co-ordinator, the school put a lot of planning into the entrepreneurship event that took place last week Friday. “The planning for this event started in Term Two – any event takes a lot of planning because we have special needs learners and we want to make sure they’re all able to properly enjoy the day.”

Visiting the school to show their support were learners from Penzance Primary School, Glenwood Preparatory School and Glenwood Junior Primary School. “The great part about the Entrepreneurship Day is that it’s a fun day for the entire school; it’s not just for the Grade Sevens. We want the Grade Sevens to develop their entrepreneurial skills, but we also wanted to put on a fun event for the entire school and the local community to enjoy,” said Bhyat .

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Bhyat says that events like this are important for the school. “We love having events like this for people to come and see what Open Air School is about and to see the greatness in our special needs learners. With events like this, we are striving for inclusivity and hope that our learners can feel and be included in society.”

The teacher described the day as a resounding success. “We had lots of schools visiting and full attendance from our learners. We had many visitors from the community, and the best part is that everything the Grade Seven learners had on sale sold out. The Grade Sevens are very happy, and from what I saw, everyone else had a great time.”

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