A day in the life and home of a child in an informal settlement

My name is Nicholas Robinson and I’m going to tell you what it feels like to live in an informal settlement. Every morning my mom wakes me up and tells me to get ready for school. Usually I don’t get breakfast but I’m used to it at this point. It’s very hard to sleep on an icy damp bed. Usually my school clothes are wet and soggy which means I have to walk to school in wet clothes. I don’t have any shoes so it is hard for me on cold days when it is pattering with rain, my feet get very cold. Sometimes I get big gashes on my feet from the glass pieces on the wet ground.

When I get to school it gets very noisy and crowded. There are a lot of children in my class. When it’s time to start we all rush in class so we can try and get a seat at a chair. The children who aren’t lucky enough like me we have to sit on shattered chairs. Some of us have to use our school bags as chairs or kneel on the ground.

After school I sprinted back to my house as fast as I can go. I then get ready to go and play soccer with my chommies. All afternoon we play passing the ball to each other, running up and down trying to score a goal. I love soccer! After our soccer matches we take a stroll down to the river for an afternoon dip. The water has rubbish and waste in it but we still find it fun to play in.

It starts to get a bit nippy as it turns into evening. I always go back home cold, drained and hungry. Usually my parents aren’t there because they have gone to fetch water from a nearby river for the night. Before they go they will leave me a piece or two of bread and if I’m lucky samp and beans. After I’ve finished super I try and do my homework by myself but that doesn’t always go according to plan. Every night I dream about the buzzing city and the bright lights of the cars.

I really wish one day we will have rubbish trucks that come and fetch the rubbish and real houses made from brick with a warm and cozy fire. I long for a roof over our heads, cars that we can drive into the big city. I know God will provide that for us and we will get what we need. Every night I pray that every one will be kept safe poor or rich. Then I fell asleep, ready for another day of hard work and fun.

The Singing Inspector Blog

I’m Gladys and last week the singing inspector came he is also known as Mr. R. 

He is the worst because he walks around in knickerbockers and he has the worst temper 

ever. He always shouts and is very rude! His long golden curls look 

a rats nest and to mention he wears thick stockings like a hunting man.

He took us for a singing inspection in a big room. We had to sing things like

doh ray me and tete tata.First he called Benny and Charles, I was scared for

them because they didn’t know a single song except Pretty Polly. So that’s what they

sang with Charles’s low voice and Benny’s high ear piercing voice. It was horrific!

Mr. R screamed at the top of his voice “You two are a waste if time you pathetic idiots.”

He chased them out of the big room. Then he called Jesse who sang quite a nice song on

the modelater. Then it was me and my friend Iris, I tried to hide behind her but I didn’t work.

I was shaking so much I couldn’t keep my hands in one place. We sang like angels, but of course 

he said we sang like the dumb and deaf.

News in grade 5

Last week we had lots of fun doing our ILT. We had partners that our teacher Mrs. Raube chose for us. We had to do reasearch on a soil creature of our choice. We had to make posters with information and lots of pictures. Luca my partner and I made our poster on the hedgehog look very realistic.we used lots of real plants as decoration and and we drew a few cute little pictures. After we had finished our posters we had to do a unprepared oral for the next day! It was very stressful and I was nervous we weren’t going to finish in time. We made it happen though we pushed through and I think we did great. Lots of other children had amazing orals and dressed up, added music and we even had a little display of what the hedgehogs burrow would look like. It was really fun and some parts were nerve wracking but overall I enjoyed it.


This week is camp. Everyone is really exited and is so nervous but eager to know who’s in their cabin. I’m personally hoping I’m with Tristan, Jared, Noah, Andre and Zachary. I’m exited to swim in the Breede River but I hope none of us get sick because every year people have got sick but I don’t  think it will happen this year. I specially because there are rumors that there is a potjie competition. I’m looking forward to all the fun activity’s and games. The worst part about camp for me is going to sleep because sometimes I get scared. I’m sure I’ll be fine I’ll just talk, talk and talk some more until I fall asleep. It’s really cool that all the grade 5s are going.