San Francique Pres stars at 2018 Kiddy Cricket awards

NICKOLAI MADRAY

SAN FRANCIQUE Presbyterian School walked away with the majority of the accolades at the 2018 Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket Academic Awards function, when they managed to rack up five titles for the second year running. Scotiabank held its 18th annual ceremony to honour the pupils, who were able to manage both their extra curricular activities along with their academic performances during the year, at the Kampo Vibes Restaurant and Lounge Auditorium in Chaguanas, yesterday.

The creative minds of the young and talented cricketers were on display as the participants were rewarded for their outstanding efforts in the areas of art and craft, creative writing, poetry and song. Not only were the students being praised for their creativity, they were also awarded for their ability to maintain their “Kiddy Cricket Journals” (special copy books) during the duration of the programme.

“San Francique Pres” left an impact on the audience with their rendition of “Cricket Earthquake”, a song written and composed by the students of the school, which memorised the audience. It was with this song which the kids claimed the song award for their school, beating neighbours, San Francique Hindu School and San Fernando Boys’ Government, who placed second and third, respectively.

Jayden Ali secured the top spot in the Art contest for “San Francique Pres” when the seven-year-old brought to life his painting of the passion around cricket. He managed to outperform Avedis Ali representing Grant Memorial Presbyterian and Xaria Lewis of Specialist Learning Centre, as they both tied for second in the art category. San Francique Pres also managed to capture the class project award and overall school title. For their success throughout the different categories, their supervising teacher Mr Brendon Ramlal, secured the teacher’s award and San Francique Pres’ fifth title of the day.

Speaking at the event, Scotiabank’s sponsorship representative, Roxane De Freitas said, “On behalf of the Scotia Foundation, I would like to salute this year’s top performers. It can be said that all is well for the future of our nation as we are very surprised, thrilled and proud of all the presentations on display and this shows the great talent that is present.”

De Freitas gave a word of advice to the young pupils as she continued, “Remember to aim high to live your dreams and work hard to achieve them. This programme goes beyond providing equipment and resources as it extends to facilitate learning through specially designed academic aids.”

Locally, the Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket programme was introduced in 2000 and the academic component was established in 2003. The 2018 academic programme took place in various primary schools around TT and involved teachers delivering classroom sessions in accordance with the curriculum in subject areas including Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts and IT.

This year, the kids were also introduced to a new and innovative category to showcase their talent and ability to design different types of quizzes based on cricket.

Giving her insight and detailing the teacher’s perspective at the ceremony was Nadia Ramnath, of Grant Memorial Presbyterian, as she emphasised, “Cricket is an outdoor game enjoyed by children where they dream to become great cricketers from a young age. It is important we nurture their minds and talents, both on and off the field, so they can become all rounded individuals within the society, in the future to come.”

In the other categories, Josiah Gajadhar representing Spring Village Hindu School created an upset over the dominant ‘San Francique Pres’ when he managed to get the upper-hand over Mathais Ramhit in the crafts component. Zaafira Ragoobar of Bamboo Settlement Government secured third place within the category.

Joshua Subiah of Curepe Presbyterian claimed the top Poem award, by ousting Grant Memorial’s Jayden Sahadeo in second and third placed Kaelyn Dipchand of Tulsa Trace Hindu School.

Ghandi Memorial orchestrated a wonderful play to take the top spot of the Skit category while San Francique Pres and Grant Memorial placed second and third, respectively, for their productions. Sagarika Sarker of Grant Memorial and Montrose Vidic’s Mathias Williams tied for the top prize for their creative writing talents while Arianna Harrinanan secured the final podium spot for Tulsa Trace Hindu School. Williams also managed to claim the award for the condition of his “Kiddy Cricket Journal”. St. Joseph TML won the special prize component of the Quiz section while the most outstanding district went to the St George East Educational District.

The 2019 edition of the Scotiabank’s Kiddy Cricket would formally resume in January.