St. Anne’s Primary Gets Facelift for Labour Day

Students at St. Anne’s Primary School in Kingston will return to classes to find much cleaner and brighter surroundings following Labour Day works carried out by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information at the institution on Monday, May 25.

The project, which was also in observance of Child Month, focused on cleaning and painting the entire school.

Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, who participated in the workday, told JIS News that the aim was to give the school a facelift, improving the aesthetics of the environment.

The Minister said she was happy to have started her Labour Day’s activities at the institution that her grandmother often spoke to her about as a child.

“I grew up hearing all about St. Anne’s because my grandmother was linked to this area, the school community and church community, so it was an honour being here,” she said.

She thanked the parents, teachers, students, and volunteers who came out to support the activity, particularly the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) team of more than 30 personnel.

“It’s really great and so heartwarming when you see people coming out to support our schools,” she told JIS News.

Director of Safety and Security at the Ministry, Richard Troupe, told JIS News that officials from the Ministry had previously visited the institution located in the Denham Town Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO), under the Inter-Ministerial School Support Strategy (IMSSS).

Funded by the British High Commission, the IMSSS is a collaborative initiative to address violence and anti-social behaviours in targeted primary and high schools.

“We took the ‘Captain I Can’ [mascot] to spend an entire day with students at the school. It’s really a motivational programme, and when we were here… we decided that we would work together to try to lift the spirit of the school community. The aesthetics is important to support teaching and learning,” Mr. Troupe said.

“We believe that this is also our way of… ensuring that our children are in a space where teaching and learning is possible, where they are motivated to come to school, where they are inspired to learn. That is something we take a lot of pride in and that’s why we are here,” he added.

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, who is Member of Parliament for West Kingston where St. Anne’s Primary is located, said he was pleased to see the strong support for the Labour Day project.

He noted that St. Anne’s Primary is one of the oldest educational institutions in the constituency.

“One of the things that make schools like St. Anne’s prosper in terms of good relationships is the kind of leadership that they possess,” he said, commending the “very hardworking” Principal, Trishianna Mitchell Francis.

Located on Bond Street, St. Anne’s Primary School is a 77-year-old educational institution serving the Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens communities.

It is dedicated to providing fundamental literacy, numeracy, and holistic youth development.