It’s hard to believe the first month of 2017 is already over. It’s come and gone so quickly. We’ll soon be publishing our Annual Report for 2016 and our 2017 Strategy and Goals, and so before we do please enjoy Fairplay’s highlights from January 2017.

Fairplay School

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At the Fairplay School there’s been a lot of good news and some troubling news too.

• The bad news has been the hospitalisation of one of our students. Payatas is always a difficult place to live and work in. One of our teachers spotted he was lethargic and with persistent rashes so we brought him to the hospital. He’s always been a sickly child and was finally diagnosed with TB and Pneumonia. Tuberculosis is, unfortunately, rather common in particular areas of the community. He’s being treated and we’ll be assisting his treatment. We’ll also be assessing the other kids in the community and building a long-term solution with everyone involved. For now the student is anonymous for child protection reasons, but we will be featuring his story in the next Faces of Payatas after talking with their family, so look out for that later in February.
• The good news has been our teachers have completed the ALS Training Course. They are now licensed Instructional Managers, which means they are free to teach our students and when they feel ready our students can take the tests for Elementary and High School Diplomas and can move on to their next stage. This means the Fairplay Center can now level up to the Fairplay School as we offer formal qualifications for our students.
• We are also submitting our application for the Fairplay School to become a licensed Alternative Learning Center ourselves. The training course for teachers was a condition of this and so we’re well on track for the Fairplay School to officially become the first Democratic School in the country! Aside from the ALS exams, our students will take the PEPT (a test assessing what grade level they are at compared to the government schools) to show their progress and with data in Emotional Intelligence, Growth Mindset, and Critical Thinking skills, we will be able to prove exactly how much our students have developed each year in many areas!

Payatas Football Club

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• In January we were able to host Community Days for two groups. Teachers and parents from the British School of Manila (BSM) visited for some friendly games, a tour of Payatas and Fairplay’s work, and to chat about how BSM and Fairplay can work together over some fantastic food by the Fairplay Café. The second group were from the C&E Group of communities and was a full-blown Community Day. Employees from C&E Publishing, C&E Foundation, and related groups visited Payatas for a fun day of football, tours, food and fun. Employees brought their younger kids too to see the new environment and that gave a real family feel to the whole experience. If you’re interested in your own Community Day, click here for more info and Contact Us for more info.
• After a Coaches Meeting with some of the older Payatas FC players, coaches have been chosen the age groups they wish to coach and trainings for 2017 have restarted. The interest from the kids keeps growing and they’re continually asking for more training, more football, and more things to do.

Fairplay Café 

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• The Fairplay Café has had a great start to 2017 with two Community Days and a catering service at the StraightArrow offices to cook for, outside the usual school lunches and dinners. It’s great that the Café is capable of serving outside of Payatas, and this really strengthens the livelihood possibilities for the local mothers managing and organising the Café.
• The mothers keep adding new dishes and experimenting with more. If you’re interested in the Fairplay Café catering to your office event, team-building exercise, outreach program, or sports training clinic then Contact Us and we can provide more info.

In our next update: the 2016 Annual Report. Celebrate with us all the progress made throughout the year and get a look ahead at what’s in store for 2017

& The Faces of Payatas: James’ Story