We are proud of the nourishing and sustaining community relationship with the nearby Blue Mountains Primary rural school. Having “adopted” the school in 2004, we have been running a vibrant range of essential projects. Our aim is to further engage and facilitate crucial community upliftment in our surrounding rural areas which we sincerely consider to be our community, and a fundamental and spiritual responsibility.
We currently involve ourselves with Blue Mountains Primary in the following ways:
- We provide nutrition to the children at the school through the Wednesday sandwiches programme. Our Year 6 class in recent years began the vegetable garden at the school which continues to date and provides healthy vegetables for the kitchen which Blue Mountains Primary staff operate offering those children who go hungry a nutritious meal
- The Learn to Swim programme is a collaborative effort by the Tygerberg Aquatics Swimming coaches and Chesterhouse providing basic swimming lessons and water wise techniques to the Blue Mountains children that are selected by the school’s staff.
- Every year, our Year 7 class and staff provide for a Christmas party for the Blue Mountains children ensuring that Father Christmas arrives with a gift for each child. Gifts are collected from the Chesterhouse Junior School children.
Besides the Blue Mountains Primary project, Chesterhouse Junior School involves itself with other outreach projects as part of our ethos of reaching out to those in need. Some of these projects include:
- The Children’s Homes project – volunteering families receive the name of an orphan that they sponsor for the duration of the year. The family knows the identity of the child that they are assisting and are encouraged to wrap and label gifts that are delivered to the children. Thus far our Junior School families have collected brand new winter pyjamas, second hand toys, brand new summer pyjamas and Christmas boxes with toiletries and stationery as essential items.
- In this year, every Year group in the Junior School had to select a charity or group of people that they wanted to pay tribute to or assist with fundraising. Projects that were chosen included entertaining the Chesterhouse ground staff, visiting old age homes; some children are doing chores at home for a price and then bringing in the money that they have collected for the Reach for a Dream foundation.
The ethos of reaching out to those less fortunate is one of the cornerstones of our school’s educational offerings. Through this we ensure that our children contribute to those that are not as fortunate as they are through their own deeds and ideas.
