King’s Trust International Community Visit
The Grade 10 and 11 King’s Trust International students have been extremely busy since day one of this current scholastic year. They have been planning, preparing and taking part in several activities, sharpening their dedication, patience and teamwork skills along the way.
On the 24thof October the KTI girls spent a 2 hour visit at Casa Marija, the elderly home which is a stone’s throw away from school. They decided to spend the first hour of their visit by making crafts with the elderly. The activity room at Casa Marija was split in three mini workshops with one or two of our students taking lead of each one.
The buzzing room of activities welcomed a group of roughly 20 eagerly waiting residents and they were offered to participate in a mini terracotta pot painting session, a bracelet making activity and a live art workshop led by Kim, our very own KTI artist. In the days leading to our visit, Kim patiently prepared a step-by-step preview of the popular ‘Bambi’ Disney character for her group of interested residents to try out their artistic skills.
The girls set off to work on this project from practically the second week of school, particularly since their first KTI outing was scheduled just a month after school started. Nonetheless, the girls worked extremely hard and not a moment was wasted mainly since handmade work takes time, precision, accuracy and lots of patience even if it only concerns preparing a short visit. Apart from crafts, the residents at Casa Marija were also offerend the golden opportunity to listen to an actual reading of Chanelle’s new book and this was received with a delightful round of applause. On the other hand, ‘Angela and Kristina also spent some time preparing a choreographed dance to the Abba song ‘Mamma Mia’. They also took time to patiently teach the steps to the rest of their classmates and educators. This was an enjoyable moment indeed. Apart from some dancing in which even some of the residents happily joined in, the girls concluded their visit with a moment of singing along to some all-time popular local and foreign classics. Before bidding farewell to the elderly residents, the girls also presented a painted terracotta plant pot to every resident present in the activity room as a token of our special morning.
The community visit was also a final outreach project the girls had to document and write about in order to complete their KTI Community Impact module.
This experience was only a head start to many projects we have in line for this current school year. The King’s Trust Achieve programme is truly a versatile subject, one in which students get to practice and grow independent skills which they need to apply in any day-to-day scenario. This initial and ever rewarding experience truly left an impact on the girls and not only on the small community of elderly residents who received us with great joy and gratitude. A note of thanks goes to the participating students from Grade 10 and 11: Clarissa, Chanelle, Chazelle, Kim, Angela, Kristina and Lana as well as the accompanying LSEs whose sterling work is always greatly appreciated.
Well done KTI students!
Ms. Margaret Vella
