Good Shepherd Primary School gifted library

GOOD Shepherd Primary School has been gifted its very own library thanks to The University of the West Indies (UWI) Alumni Association.
On Monday, Cecelia Neblett-Brathwaite, Vice- President of The UWIAA Barbados Chapter, offi- cially handed over the room at the Fitts Village, St. James school to Principal Olivia Hinds in the presence of Deputy Chief Education Officer, Joy Adamson and Principal of The UWI Cave Hill Campus, Professor Clive Landis.
Though small, an appre- ciative Principal Hinds noted the big impact the library will have on the lives of the children.
“Since the pandemic, children are no longer able to visit the library, and now we have our own library – they have an opportunity to experience
what a library is, especially those children in the infants who have never ever been to a library before.
“A library is very important to a school; it is so important that it reaches every area of our curriculum. The children have been reading online for the past couple of years since the pandemic has started. And now back at school, they have now that you have given us this library, a variety of print material which is important for them to use and to manip- ulate so that they can read,” she stressed.
“It’s okay to be online, but you have to read your exam papers, you have to read to understand. And when they get the opportunity to read and understand they are able now to become better at their reading.” The principal also shared with the donors that her students are already excited and ready to start borrowing the books.
“Our children are ready, they saw the books and they are ready to go; ready to read and asking if they can borrow a book now...So we want to thank you, you could not have done a better job by giving us a much-needed library. And as we add to the library, and I’m encouraging you to add some more to it – probably a few chairs – they can come in to read and relax and I am sure our children will become better readers,” Hinds further expressed.
The Deputy Chief Education Officer also applauded the project, which has seen the transformation of a small room into an inviting space, full of books for the students.
“The Ministry of Education knows when the children were online for those two years, a lot of times they didn’t have the opportunity to pick up a book. And I’m sure all of us here would have gone to the library, borrowed books, and we knew what it felt like when we opened that colorful book, and we can take it home,” Adamson said, encourag- ing the National Library Service to assist the school in this effort.
She added, “Yes, the space is small, but the Alumni Association was very creative – it looks lovely. I know that this is not the only school - there will be several schools coming on. And we will like wherever possible to have school libraries in all our primary schools.”
Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, Professor Landis said that the library was made possible through a team effort, and he took the opportunity to thank everyone who assisted.
“The University is a community; we are a community of scholars, staff, students, and alumni. And so, as a community we work together, and we work in the community.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to have our maintenance staff build the shelves; to have Cecilia donate the books through the Barbados Chapter of the Alumni; the Ministry of Education working with us; donation from Terrific Tiles and the artwork by Neville Legall. So, it really has been a joint effort, a community effort and it’s a great pleasure for us to be part of this...” he said.