MOET SCHOOL NURSERY BLOCK COMPLETED – JULY 2016
We are pleased to announce that MOET has managed to build a beautiful new nursery block, thanks to another generous donation from Canning Trust, match-funded essentially by our wonderful corporate sponsor, La Fosse Associates.
Why was a nursery block needed?
MOET started in 1999 as a hut and the school was built gradually classroom by classroom over the subsequent years to accommodate a new intake of children every year.
During the recession we had to stop taking new children for a couple of years, but now we are to full capacity with 300 girls and boys in total (including nursery school children, right through from Standard 1 to Standard 8).
Robin Clarke, chair of FOMOE, explains:
You might well wonder why we have a nursery classroom when we are a primary school but the facility is there specifically so we can catch the kids as young as possible before they get old enough to be tempted to go off fishing or work in the fields or generally get up to no good rather than go to school. Once they are at MOET they seem to enjoy themselves so much they want to come into school – the meal every morning when they might otherwise do without helps as well.
The current facility is 5 x 4m which is a bit of a squeeze with this year’s intake of 49 children.
We have also been told by the ‘Ministry of Gender, Women, Children Affairs and Community development’ that we need to separate the activities of the primary school and nursery which is logical considering how boisterous the primary school kids can be around the smaller ones.
The ministry also require us to have ‘45 small chairs for kids not wooden but plastic and two teachers tables and chairs; 2 small beds and mattresses, Teacher training of two nursery teachers (we currently have 1 teacher), oil painted walls with art work with the alphabet, vowels etc. written on the walls, construction of two nursery toilets recommendation is with running water not pit latrine and a well demarcated kids library inside the classroom’
How was the construction funded?
We applied to Canning Trust for a grant to part-cover the construction and they required us to match-fund the other half of the costs. Canning Trust had previously awarded us with a grant to buy a generator. La Fosse Associates, a long time corporate supporter of MOET through FOMOE, who already funded the irrigation and aquaculture project, essentially matched these funds. They put on a fundraiser networking evening and FOMOE was one of the beneficiary charities.
See www.lafosse.com/fuse2015/for more details
Patterson and the staff at MOET School are very proud to have this new block and want to convey their thanks to all who contributed to this being possible.
