By ALANA MITCHELSON
BAYLES Primary School has received a donated friendship bench seat built by Kooweerup high school students.
Teamwork and community leadership were some of the many skills deployed by a group of students from Kooweerup Secondary College’s mentoring program in constructing the friendship seat.
The seat is designed to be a place where primary school students could go when feeling sad or left out.
A child sitting on the seat would alert and encourage other students to include them in their lunchtime activities.
Bayles Primary School principal Mathew Anderton was grateful to have been presented with the friendship seat on Tuesday 24 May.
“This is such a remarkable example of the community coming together to improve the lives of our young people,” Mr Anderton said.
“The Friendship Seat promotes kindness and support to children who might be experiencing feelings of isolation.
“We are so appreciative of the work that the Kooweerup Men’s Shed and the Kooweerup Secondary College students have done to help our kids.”
Kooweerup Regional Health Service youth development worker Brian Harlow, who co-ordinates the KWR Secondary School mentoring program, said the high school students developed the design of the chair, collected the wood and completed the construction.
“Our mentoring program is in its sixth year and helps support Year 9 students who are struggling with the classroom environment,” Mr Harlow said.
“We teach them social etiquette and how to relate better with adults.
“This helps them better respect their teachers and, as a result, they can perform better in school.
“Students did a great job building the friendship seat as part of a woodwork project and they were excited to present it to the primary school.”
