Breadnut Hill Primary School

BREADNUT HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL

I have been at my school for about a week now. It is exciting to finally be here. I have now sat in on each of the classrooms, talked with all the teachers, and explored the library and computer room. All the teachers are looking forward to help for their low students and utilizing the computer room On Thursday I was one of 3 judges for a Reading contest- grades 1-3 finalists (5 each grade) had to answer questions about the book they had read= written answers, then read aloud a passage. The grades 4-6 each put on a readers theater production complete with costumes. The Ministry of Education sent 2 literacy consultants to observe. The one consultant is eager for me to open the computer room and use some phonics software for the kids needing help. So obviously that is a priority I will be working on - school runs to the end of June, so I have a month as a trial run for next school year.
I also have gotten to know some of the 6th grade girls and they are helping put the library in some kind of order, stamping books and arranging them. The school has been given multiple copies of the same book (and I mean 50-60 copies) which isn’t that helpful as libraries go- I hope to see if other school have this problem, maybe we can create a book swap! I should know next week what types of books we are lacking- right now I would say level 1 and 2 beginning reader books and books for boys. Here too, just like the US there is concern for boys not being interested in reading. We have lots of Hannah Montana!

The school doesn’t have any after school programs although some kids seem to stay later just hanging out. I have been watching some of the boys play cricket- using a tennis ball or an inflated juice box. Oh, they sell bag juice which most of the kids drink - cheaper that bottles or cans. Most don’t put a straw in, just bite a hole and drink. I get school lunch free- so far it has been chicken and rice and peas, curry chicken and rice, and mac and cheese and mac and veggie mite ( vegetarian meat substitute very common here cheaper than beef).
I am mastering taking the taxi every where- grocery shopping is a challenge since you can only buy what you can carry to the taxi stand (3 blocks away) and then up the hill and down 36 steps to my place!

Because of the violence in Kingston, all of the Peace Corps Volunteers are on Alert status and we have a procedure in place to communicate anything to us and what steps we should take. I feel very safe in this neighborhood.