The National Cultural Foundation joined with its competition sponsor the Barbados Public Workers Cooperative Credit Union Ltd to celebrate the achievements of the inaugural year of its Schools Landship Programme, at the Awards Presentation on Sunday, July 14^th at the Daphne Joseph Hackett Theatre.

The programme which was rolled out over the last 15 months saw training of over 300 children at 12 schools across the island in Landship performance skills and cultural mores. Chief Cultural Officer of the NCF, Ms. Andrea Wells reminded attendees that the National Cultural Foundation, working in close collaboration with the Barbados Landship Association, has undertaken the task of reviving the cultural phenomenon that is LANDSHIP, a uniquely Barbadian cultural movement which is currently celebrating its 161^st year.

The Awards event featured clips of performances across many of the participating schools and presented top students and teachers with leadership awards, along with certificates and cash prizes recognising excellence in performances in Maypole, Maneuvers, Uniforms and Insignia and Financial Literacy.

While all student participants were not able to be present, each school was adequately represented by its student leaders and their cheering teachers and parents.

In her presentation, Mrs. Gail Niles, the Director of Marketing of the BPWCCUL indicated the company’s commitment to encouraging and celebrating achievement in youth especially in the area of financial literacy. She expressed fascination of the similar histories of that aspect of both the Landship and Credit Union movements and indicated the company’s willingness to work more closely with the Landship towards accomplishing both sectors objectives.

The Chief Education Officer, Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw joined with Mrs. Niles and senior members of the Barbados Landship movement in recognizing and presenting top awards won by the schools:

Among these were as follows:

BEST PRIMARY SCHOOL LANDSHIP

1^st  – BLS Sankofa, Deacons Primary

2^nd – BLS Fountainhead, St. Albans Primary

3^rd – BLS Explorers, Holy Innocents Primary

BEST SECONDARY SCHOOL LANDSHIP

1^st  – BLS Asantehene, Princess Margaret Secondary School

2^nd –  BLS Frederick Smith Vanguard, Frederick Smith Secondary School

3^rd – BLS Garrison, Graydon Sealy Secondary School

Leadership awards were offered to the top 2 outstanding students at each school’s Landship, along with the Coordinating teachers in the programme.

The CCO noted that the most important parts of the Landship model are those aspects that deal with creating and cementing community bonds and generally developing resilience in an unequal and at times challenging world.