St Martin’s students gain new perspective with giveback initiatives

by Christina Smith

Students of the St Martin Secondary School downed their pens and books last Friday for a critical assignment which saw them emerging with a perspective on life.

Three hundred and fifty-six students of the Kingstown-based school marked the Feast Day for the school’s namesake Saint with various initiatives for the five year groups.

The events were rolled out on November 1, 2024 with the Form One students engaging in a community giveback in Kingstown where they distributed food packages to homeless persons around the city. Form Two visited early childhood centers where they cleaned, cooked and read stories to preschoolers, while form three’s activity was an environmental clean-up of a beach in Arnos Vale. Form Four and Five students visited homes for the elderly, including the Lewis Punnett Home.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT, Father Collin Jackson explained that following the community initiatives, teachers and students conducted a debriefing session where they had the opportunity to discuss their experiences and key lessons learned.

Fr Jackson said the students who visited the Lewis Punnett Home, a care facility which houses the indigent elderly, had an eye-opening experience which prompted a moving discussion among the class.

“They got an idea of what-of-life experience is about. It was meant to change their mindsets about what happens in homes. I remember one of the boys saying ‘my mother would never come here’. So I asked what can we do for the people who are here and it started a discussion. Hopefully, we can have projects later on to help a bit more.”

He added, that they believe it is important to safely expose their charges to the challenges that people are faced with in life.

“They are going to be exposed, but they have to be exposed in a safe way … you are then able to help them internalize and reflect on what they are being exposed to, as opposed to leaving them to be exposed to it, and the way in which they take it in, deforms them.”

Principal ,Yohance Gibson, explained that the students are prepped before they head out on their assignments and they are accompanied by teachers.

The give-back initiatives have been running at the school for some time, and are also mounted at Christmas and summer breaks. Principal Gibson said the school recognizes that academics cannot be the sole focus of an educational institution.

“At St Martin’s we really want a grounded, rounded child. That is the goal. While education is important, a child can be very well educated and lack certain principles and values. You might end up an educated thief who knows how to play the system.”

Also noting “our students must be more than just subjects”, Principal Gibson said the goal is to make students aware and prepared for life outside of the schools’ walls.

“They have to operate in our realities and our reality is that there are going to be deviant behaviours … there are going to be people who are marginalized. To be aware of that is to know and do better. We want them to be aware…”.

He issued an appeal for local groups who wish to collaborate with the school in other give-back initiatives for marginalized and vulnerable groups to come forward.

“It is not only the responsibility of the government, or the social groups ,or the health sector.”