Natest Primary School celebrates diamond anniversary
To commemorate this very historic achievement, the school’s principal, RK Thilakdhari, has many activities planned during the academic year to highlight the glorious milestone in the school’s history.
Natest Primary School, situated in the former Sugar Estate of Campbells Town, Mount Edgecombe, will be turning 60 this year.
This historic school was built with contributions from the meagre earnings of the employees of the Natal Estates Sugar Mill community of Mount Edgecombe whose livelihood depended entirely on the existence of the Sugar Mill. Despite the hardships of our forebears, they knew instinctively that education was the key to our escape from poverty and misery.
The focus on good education and the courage to forge ahead despite little or no assistance from the erstwhile apartheid government resulted in many of the poor families of Mount Edgecombe becoming part of a mostly successful middle-class community.
The school has a proud history of producing many successful community leaders and professional people throughout its 60 years of existence.
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To commemorate this very historic achievement, the school’s principal, RK Thilakdhari, has many activities planned during the academic year to highlight the glorious milestone in the school’s history.
In this regard, October has been set aside for the culmination of the 60th anniversary celebration.
Accordingly, in the interest of forging a closer and progressive relationship with the community, Thilakdhari is urging parents, residents, ex-pupils, former parent body members and former teachers to be a part of this great event in order to make it a great success.
In addition, ex-residents who previously resided in Mount Edgecombe and in the various outlying estate areas and villages such as Hillhead, Blackburn, Burnside, Cornubia, Saccharine, New Cottage, Westbrook, Waterloo and Phoenix estates are urged to attend this function and thus contribute to a great historic reunion of a lifetime.
The following activities have been planned for the year:
- 60th anniversary sports day: Saturday, April 13
- 60th anniversary inter-house athletics: Friday, May 24
- Fun run: September 6
- Golf day: To be confirmed
- Dinner and dance: October 26
- 60th anniversary commemorative brochure
Thilakdhari requests former pupils, teachers, residents and anyone who has memorable photographs and documents to scan and email to [email protected]/ [email protected] or to visit the school with relevant items, where they will be scanned and returned to you immediately.
Such information will be used to publish a commemorative brochure and for an exhibition.
Moreover, the 60th anniversary committee would like to document anecdotes and the history of the Mount Edgecombe community and would appreciate any information in this regard.
For more information, contact Patchie Naicker on 074-134-9016, Vincent Govender on 082-298-7094 or Rodney Naidoo on 084-871-9476.
