Hanover schools band together to cast away negativity

WESTERN BUREAU:

Against the background of a number of students being involved in negative behaviour since the return of face-to-face classes in schools islandwide, administrators in four Hanover schools participated in an initiative aimed at promoting positive values and attitudes in their students.

Bethel Primary, Bethel Infant, Cacoon Castle Primary and Infant, and Watford Hill Primary schools, with their over six hundred students in total, accompanied by their teachers and auxiliary staff, participated in the initiative dubbed ‘Balloon Release Day’, an idea which was conceptualised by the Guidance Department of the Bethel Primary School, in Hopewell, Hanover.

SYMBOLIC GESTURE

The main aim of the initiative is to assist the students in getting rid of whatever negative thoughts and actions that may be present in their lives, while at school or home, and to replace the negative thoughts and actions with positive ones going forward, through the symbolic gesture.

The students all gathered on the compound of the Bethel Primary, where they were given helium-filled balloons to release in the sky.

Following a session of prayer and meditation, led by pastor of the Hopewell Missionary Church, Reverend Ronald Webster, the skyline was filled with the released balloons, supposedly carrying away the negative behaviours and attitudes of all who participated, and the grounds filled with cheering students and teachers, all committed to adopting only positive behaviour going forward.

“What we are seeking to do through the Balloon Release Day launch is to get our students to think about all the negative attitudes, and the negative behaviours in themselves, and to get those negative things out of their systems,” principal of the Bethel Primary School, Jasmin Johnson, told The Gleaner.

She noted that, if the children are committed to change, they can also be an influencing factor in bringing forth change at home and in their communities.

“We ask our students to think about these negative things and then they pray silently and ask God to take away all of these negativities and all the bad energies from them and from our community in general. And then we use the release of the balloons to symbolise those doing away with the bad attitudes and negativities,” she said.

She explained further that the other participating schools fall within the same Quality Education Circle (QEC) as Bethel Primary, and always collaborate on projects than can prove beneficial to all the schools within the QEC, irrespective of which school initiates it.

In an interview with The Gleaner, following the release of the balloons, Reverend Webster had high praise for the initiative, stating that he considers it very worthwhile and one that will be profitable in the long run.

“I think it is a worthwhile, symbolic moment, especially for the children, giving them something positive to reflect on,” he said.

“In a world that is so negative, the releasing of the balloons, I am certain that they (the children) will remember it, that ‘at some point in time I released my negatives’. The follow-up is going to be the critical thing,” he opined.

Chairman of the board of governors of Bethel Primary School, Kadian Ellis, also described the initiative as an excellent one which offers only positives for the school population.