IT WAS LIKE THE FIRST DAY of school all over again for some students of Grazettes Primary yesterday.
That was the atmosphere both outside and inside the Ebenezer and Breath of Life Seventh-Day Adventist churches as students and staff checked into their new environs for the first time.
Anxious parents and their children boarded the two buses which left Grazettes Primary bound for Ebenezer in Whitehall and Breath of Life, situated in Eden Lodge, just a stone’s throw away from Eden Lodge Primary, St Michael.
The infants, who make up 131 of the school’s roll of 294 students, are being housed at Breath of Life, while the remainder will attend Ebenezer.
Some of the younger ones were seen crying and clutching their parents, while being escorted to their “new school”.
Long before the scheduled 9 a.m. start, teachers and officials from the Ministry of Education converged at the two churches to ensure everything was in order.
Among them was Chief Education Officer Laurie King who, along with senior Education officer Joy Adamson, met for a short while with the school’s principal Etwyn Bynoe.
Speaking to the media shortly after, King said he was generally satisfied with how things had gone on the first day.
“As you can see we are trying to get settled at this new location . . . and the children are all excited as you would imagine. But I think the facilities are adequate and we should be settled in another day or so, where we can get on with the business of teaching and learning,” he explained during his brief visit to Breath of Life.
He added he expected the relocation to last between two to three weeks as they worked to sort out the issues at Grazettes Primary.
King also thanked the Seventh-Day Adventists for once more coming to the aid of the Ministry of Education.
He insisted that judging from the feedback he had received, both parents and students had given the new buildings the thumbs up.
“So far, everyone seems to be happy. You may get a complaint about it being too hot in a room, but that is something which even happens in a regular school setting,” King stated.
Adamson said as a result of the way the church was structured, partitions were being used to separate the classes.
Additionally, she disclosed that while furniture had to be borrowed from schools across the island to outfit the two churches, they had received enough to make both students and staff comfortable.
Kerriann Carrington, who was dropping off her seven-year-old son at Breath of Life, said she was relieved to finally have her son at a safe location.
“Like all parents, I was concerned with the health issues at Grazettes . . . but at least the children have somewhere to go to school now.
“We were concerned for the safety of our children, but I am willing to work with this location for now,” Carrington said.
