The past two Wednesdays have seen streams of excited students from local low decile primary schools shuffle into St Paul’s chapel as the senior students continue their ‘Over the Fence Ministry’ programme for 2017.
Over the Fence Ministry is a service programme, started last year, that sees a number of St Paul’s students give up their spare time to coach sport, read or simply eat lunch with children from local primary schools, just over the fence from their own school.
In February, these primary children and their teachers were welcomed to St Paul’s. High fives were exchanged as the young children were handed new lunch boxes and drink bottles, donated by Sistema Plastics. Profits from the school’s inaugural student-led fundraising gala last year, allowed St Paul’s students to purchase extra containers and fill each with a packed lunch of sandwiches, muffins and juice.
The children were then invited to join their St Paul’s “buddies” for a picnic and games on the front field.
Teacher-in-charge, Carl Neethling, believes St Paul’s students are benefiting from this programme just as much as the primary children.
“This is character building for our students. They start to realise that not everyone has the same luxuries as them but they can use their fortunate positions to make a tangible difference.”
