GIPS Sister School

MISS COSTA REPORTS ON THE VISIT TO STRATHEWEN PS TO DELIVER THE FUNDS RAISED BY NENE VALLEY PS

Students from our sister school in the UK, Nene Valley Primary School, contributed over 351 pounds to support our Bushfire Appeal for Strathewen Primary School. To raise money students and staff held a "Come dressed as an Aussie Day".  Two GIPS students, a parent and myself set off to deliver the cheque from Nene Valley Primary to Strathewen Primary School. The school is currently located in a double portable building on the grounds of Wattle Valley Primary School.

It was quite funny to us 'city dwellers' because when we came out to Wattle Valley we felt that we were out in the country but the Strathewen teachers told us that the kids all complained about being in the 'city' and how there was too much traffic!

The school and the kids were delighted to receive the cheque and I know that it will go a long way to help them rebuild their school. The students couldn't believe that even a school half way around the world heard about the fires and were willing to help them. The money will go towards many things. Some suggestions included: replanting orchards on the school grounds, building a sand-pit, shade sails out in the yard, a kiln for art activities and books!

We learnt a bit about the community of Strathewen and how they have come together in such a united front to overcome the devastation of the fires. Of the 28 families that were able to return to the school all of them had to relocate after the fires. Only 4 out of those families have been able to move back into their homes. There are some families that have moved back into sheds or caravans on their properties. There is also the chance that some families will never move back to their original homes and will choose to live elsewhere. The students all now need to take a bus to get to school in Wattle Glen and some live a further 20-50km from the school so it's been pretty tough for them. As I mentioned earlier they are such a community - like one big family - and we really felt this when we were in their temporary school. The students wondered where their food scraps would go and 'what about their chickens?' so parents straight away built a chicken coup for the students and brought in a compost bin. Devastatingly not all students were able to return to school and each member of the school would have been deeply traumatised by the fires.

After we left the school we decided to head up to Strathewen to see what it was looking like now, months after the fires. We were quite blown away with how green everything was as we headed towards Strathewen - a sign that there is a circle of life and things live again. As we drew closer we couldn't believe the sight of the mountains surrounding the area. The mountains were black with burnt skeletal trees making a fringe across the top of the hills and these hills stretched for kilometres! Just the thought of people being able to see these hills and land ablaze with absolute towering flames would be incredible. As we found the sign for Strathewen Primary School we realised that there was nothing left of the school besides a concrete slab. All the trees that surrounded the area were blackened and burnt by the fires - demonstrating that the school had no hope of survivng the fires. The school is currently participating in many meetings to organise the rebuilding of their school - what an enormous job! They are planning to have two classroom buildings and a large hall which will also be used as a community centre. The land is on a steep slope so it's going to be quite a process to level the land to build on.

All in all we found it quite an amazing and sobering experience and it really hit home how lucky we are here at Glen Iris Primary School.

Thanks again to Nene Valley Primary School for the wonderful effort to raise money for Strathewen Primary School.