Pupils and staff of Saba’s Sacred Heart School on Monday morning took part in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Anti-Bullying Week 2022 and the 2022 Book Week, both of which take place this entire week.
After the Saba Song, the Sacred Heart School Song, and a prayer, principal Hortence Promes welcomed everyone and called the Anti-Bullying Week and the Book Week a good combination because they both addressed very important matters such as treating each other with kindness and respect.
Etsel Lake of the After School Care and a few pupils made a short statement against bullying. Lucrecia Paulina of the Community Development Department presented her poem about bullying. Announcing the next part of the program, Lake said that as a child, he was bullied. “One trick that helped me was reading,” he said.
Director of the Queen Wilhelmina Library Tiffany Zagers announced this year’s winners of the Book Week 2022 slogan and design. Children from Grade 1 to 6 made a slogan from this year’s theme: friendship. From these entries, the judges picked “Tell a friend, grab a book, let’s go read in our little nook.” This slogan was written by Je’Mya Massiah of Grade 3. The entries for the design competition came from the Saba Comprehensive School. Emely Rosa Vasquez of Pro 2, was the winner of this year’s design. The Library Class of the Year was Grade 1 of the Sacred Heart School.
Island Governor Jonathan Johnson performed the official opening of Anti-Bullying Week 2022 and Book Week 2022. “Bullies think that they are very strong, but actually they are weak. Basically, it is important that we treat others the way we want to be treated. Books can take us to many places. Reading is knowledge, it is power,” he said.
The entire week, activities are being organized for the children to give attention to Anti-Bullying Week and Book Week. For the Anti-Bullying Week, different activities will take place in the classrooms that will dedicate attention to bullying and its effects. In the afternoon, there will be games, crafts, a treasure hunt, and an odd socks day on Wednesday. The closing is this Friday with presentations at school in the morning and a child disco in the afternoon.
In collaboration with Joelyn Robinson and Lauren Risley of the Public Health Department, there will be fun team-building activities for children of both the daycare and the primary school. There will be a range of games, from cat & mouse and duck, duck goose to steal the bacon, and a group jump rope.
Movie nights are scheduled for 5:30 pm at the Queen Wilhelmina Library on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. The Tuesday movie will be for kindergarten 1 to Grade 3, Thursday’s movie will be for Grade 4 to 6, and on Friday the movie night for the students of the Saba Comprehensive School will take place. On Friday morning is the annual Book Week walk-a-thon, starting from the Sacred Heart School at 8:30 am to Queen Wilhelmina Park.