GLENMORE Primary School celebrated the official opening of its new building, the Co-Lab Esibayeni centre.
The building, comprised of a music room, art room, Zulu language centre, offices and the maintenance workshop, is a dream come true for principal, David Spiteri, who began as an art teacher. “I have dreamt about this since I came to the school in 2006. I realised this is an artistic community. I encourage the children to perform, dance and sing and believe in driving education through artistic pursuits.”
The building is painted with a ‘helping hands’ image as the school encourages the Grade 7 learners to help people outside the school. There is also a ‘photo booth’ on the bottom floor where photos of school events can be displayed for all to see.
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Mr Spiteri said he was battling to find a name for the new building when a former teacher and linguist came up with the name Esibayeni, which means ‘the kraal’ in Zulu. “The kraal is where the wealth is kept, and I felt this was apt for this new building” adding that it was dedicated to Suzanne Edmunds, who assisted in making the donation of R1.2million from the Victor Daitz Foundation a reality.
“We first started speaking about this project five years ago and I spoke to local builder and former pupil Graeme Kerr who put me onto Suzanne at Project Build. Project Build put through drawings and plans to the Victor Daitz Foundation for funding. We dedicated the building to her as she died earlier this year and didn’t see the completed building,” he said.
Mr Spiteri thanked the donors and parents, as well as the school’s maintenance team staff who did a lot of work on the building to cut costs.
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