Gillitts Primary School celebrates their 70th birthday
The principal shares about the history of the school and the upgrades they are working towards, while one of the school's avid supporters, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, gave generously to the school.
GILLITTS Primary School celebrated the 70th anniversary of the school’s founding in October.
The Stockville Road school hosted a programme, which included an opening prayer, speeches, a puppet show presented by Abundant Life and a warm meal catered by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which is conducting social responsibility projects at the school.
The primary school was selected as the top-performing school in the district for 2019. Principal Arti Jadoo is proud of their achievements. The school’s first intake of learners was in 1953, and 70 years later, it serves the families of the area surrounding the school and Molweni, Shongweni, Hammarsdale and Inanda.
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Under Jadoo’s leadership, since 2011, fundraising efforts were successful and led to improvements and upgrades on the premises. The passing of 2019 saw construction and maintenance undertaken at the school, which included new ablution facilities, a complete repaint, septic tanks, furniture and resource materials.
Jadoo says these upgrades have resulted in a peaceful and happy environment conducive to teaching and learning.
Chris Muckle, from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, said Gillitts Primary School has become the social responsibility beneficiary of his organisation. Muckle said that the Abundant Life members who performed the puppet show dedicated a year of their lives to mission work and ministry. The young actors travel the country, sharing messages from the gospel in a creative way for school learners.
Jadoo said that in addition to the arrangements for the day, the church had made a generous donation of canned goods, which the school utilised in their food programme.
“We are using the canned tomatoes in our nutrition programme because we feed our learners daily. For some of them, it is their only meal for the whole day,” noted the principal.
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The principal’s next proposed project is a steel structure – the donations for which can be accumulated gradually and which will finally result in a functional hall that her learners can use for assemblies. She said the children are exposed to the elements when attending assembly, and her aim is to have a stage erected in the proposed structure.
Jadoo says the school’s success has been a team effort incorporating donors, volunteers, dedicated staff, community and religious leaders, social workers and parents.
“Despite our various challenges, namely social ills, such as child-headed households, Aids, poverty, neglect and abuse, we boast 100-percent pass rate,” says Jadoo proudly.
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