JIS Donates Educational Material to John Austin All-Age in Clarendon

John Austin All-Age School, North Central Clarendon, received a donation of posters, books, flags, DVDs and other educational materials from the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) on Monday (October 12).
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the JIS, Mrs. Donna-Marie Rowe, presented the items which are valued at just under $6,000 dollars, to the school’s Principal, Mrs. Direna Lewis.
“This is the first time that we are printing these heritage posters of our heroes and national symbols, and John Austin All-Age is the first school to receive them as gifts,” Mrs. Rowe said.
She was speaking to more than 300 students of the school, during the handing over ceremony at the institution
“We have a number of flags, DVDs, line drawings of our heroes and other materials on emancipation, including a book entitled ‘Rhythms: Jamaica’s Heritage in Music and Dance’, and I know you will make very good use of the resources,” Mrs. Rowe stated.
“The JIS’ contribution to national life is invaluable and that is why we are here today, to ensure that you appreciate your heritage and that you are proud to be Jamaicans,” she told the students who are currently celebrating National Heritage Week.
Principal of the School, Mrs. Direna Lewis, lauded the JIS for the donation, and gave an assurance that it will benefit all students.
“I know that these materials are valuable and we are going to be using them to the best of our knowledge. All students from Grades 1 to 9 are going to be benefitting from them. The teachers are going to find the materials very useful, especially this week, as we remind our students of our heritage and our culture. These will come in very handy, and we will find them very useful,” Mrs. Lewis said.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), Mrs. Donna-Marie Rowe (left), makes a donation of posters, DVDs, books and other educational materials to Principal of the John Austin All-Age School, Mrs. Direna Lewis (right), during a handing over ceremony on Monday (October 12) at the institution as part of its Heritage Week celebrations. Located in Pennants, Clarendon, John Austin is home to 316 students.

“Certainly we will be using them [materials] this week to enlighten and educate our children, and we do hope that later we are going to have better citizens because of the presentations you made here this morning”, the Principal added.
Grade 5 teacher, Miss Sophia Morgan, who made the plea on behalf of the school through JIS Engineer, Phillip Patterson, at a Prime Minister’s Town Hall meeting in Clarendon, recently, explained that the information available from the documents will ultimately enhance the students’ learning.
“I saw JIS on television and I knew that it would be good to highlight our school, so I asked for the national symbols and heroes and any other material that he [Phillip Patterson] would have to offer,” she explained.
“We feel good, at this time, to receive such colourful materials. Sometimes when we have the black and white (materials), the students just take a glance. But, what we have seen this morning is that the students are captivated by these (colourful) materials,” she pointed out.
Miss Morgan said that the material would be placed in the library and the social studies corner, as well as in various classes for the teachers to use them accordingly, to enhance learning.
Expressing thanks were Grade 6 students, Aliyah Gayle and Pershad Simms, both of whom felt that the posters and books will be useful for research and other assignments.
“The donation for us means a lot, because we can put the books in the library and we can use the pictures of the heroes in our social studies work,” Aliyah explained. Pershad noted that they can be used for study, research and other assignments.
The John Austin All Age School was established in 1900 and named after the community in which it was established. However, the original school which was destroyed by fire in 1951, and has since been relocated to Pennants It has 316 students enrolled.