Local young writer Keschrie Booysen was awarded for her storytelling ability last Wednesday after she won the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) Story Stars Competition.
Keschrie, Grade 5 learner of Philadelphia Primary, now has her story published on the WCED’s website.
The Pick n Pay (PnP) School Club awarded Keschrie after she wrote and narrated her own story.
André Nel, head of sustainability at Pick n Pay, says that they wanted to celebrate this amazing and proud achievement – at the young age of 10 – among Keschrie’s fellow learners and teachers.
Apart from receiving a Hero Award certificate and badge in a ceremony attended by her grade, Keschrie also received a R1 000 PnP gift card. Her teacher, Elzanne Loubscher, who supported her entry into the WCED competition, was also given a R500 gift card. This is in addition to her main prize from the WCED.
To celebrate the occasion, the PnP School Club team also presented the school’s Grade 5 learners with Easter eggs and PnP pencil cases made from recycled plastic bottles. The Hero Awards forms part of the PnP School Club and aims to encourage positive behaviour and attitudes in schools by celebrating and rewarding everyday acts of heroism in the classroom on the playground, sports field or in their community.
Learners achievements, whether big or small, deserve to be awarded, and this is what the Pick n Pay Hero Awards Programme aims to achieve the retailer explains. Says Nel: “It’s important to celebrate moments of achievement among our nation’s children so we further motivate them to always work on reaching their goals and dreams. We are very proud of young Keschrie and her talent.”
Philadelphia Primary forms part of the Pick n Pay School Club network of over 3 000 schools that receive free educational resources each year to support learners and teachers. The school’s Grade 1 learners were also surprised with stationery hampers and the school received three buckets of wet wipes, each containing 2 000 wet wipes.
