A colourful and professional-looking Christmas card designed by year two to year six pupils from Dun Salv Portelli Primary School in San Lawrenz, was presented to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Mrs Gonzi at the Office of the Prime Minister, in Castille, yesterday.
“It is the second year running that the I have, in the name of the government, and therefore in the country’s name, asked students to create the message we want to send out by means of a Christmas card to be given in Malta and overseas,” said Dr Gonzi.
“In fact this card will also be sent to various dignitaries abroad, across a number of different continents,” Dr Gonzi told the students.
The Christmas card was designed by a group of the children present, under the supervision of their art teacher, Victor Agius. The Gozitan pupils also collaborated on a number of different art projects and used five different media in all, including water-colours and clay-modelling. Various paintings of the nativity scene were made out of which one of the best ones was selected as the design for the card. A beautiful clay crib was also created by the children and presented for viewing.
“The voice of our children needs to be listened to and we are listening to them – this is what we would like to demonstrate through this project. San Lawrenz’s Primary School is the smallest primary on our small island and yet this project also proves that size doesn’t matter as we can all be equally successful,” added Dr Gonzi.
Dr and Mrs Gonzi met with all the children individually and talked to them about their creative work, and various scrap-books which included photos and stories about the activities they enjoyed during the last summer months.
“Ours is a small school with a big heart,” said headmaster Frank Gatt. “We realise that children are not bottles which need to be filled – on the contrary we have to do our utmost to bring out the children’s particular talents and this is one of those opportunities.”
“Nahdmu Flimkien, Nirnexxu Flimkien – these are the words the San Lawrenz headmaster used to describe the Gozo College’s work ethic and philosophy, and I would like to borrow this message as it can be used for all of us nation-wide,” continued Dr Gonzi.
The pupils were taken on a small tour around Castille and they were also shown an 18th Century Neopolitan style Crib by the prime minister himself. “Many of the figurines are precious and of antique value, and were brought over through important museums in Europe and the US, thanks to the hard work of the curator, Fr Edgar Vella,” explained the prime minister.
“The crib is open for public viewing inside Castille until 7 January every evening between 6 and 8pm on weekdays, and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.