Week Nine - Page Two

CHECKOUT THIS IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT LINK FOR CREATING A CHILDCARE BUBBLE

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-a-childcare-bubble-with-another-household

A STROLL IN THE CITY WITH YEAR THREE

In Year Three our young scholars are looking at city life in Geography ........ This learning is spilling over wonderfully into their Art lessons with Mrs Moodie where they are crafting some lovely cityscapes, using a range of collage materials.

YEAR FIVE FOCUS ON SLUMS

Year Five has been learning about slums in Geography. At the end of this unit, the children wrote an essay to display their learning. The following pieces by Mathies van Herwaarden and Raffy Wilson showcase our children's learning. Year Five compared and contrasted life in a slum to our own lives. They also looked at how people in slums implement self-help schemes to try and improve their own quality of life.

MATHIES' SLUM ESSAY

A slum is an illegal settlement that lacks in some of the following: safe housing, sanitation, sufficient living space, easy and affordable access to water or the legal right to the home. Additionally, slums usually form around urban centrals, for example, around cities. As a fact, the five biggest slums in the world are in Pakistan, Mexico, India, Kenya and South Africa.

Many people live in slums for a reason. That reason could be because of natural disasters or war. Living in slums can also occur due to poverty, lack of money or an unhappy living situation. Often, people move to cities to find jobs and to be able to buy the necessities of living. This means that not all people living in slums are poor. However, residents of these communities may not be able to afford houses or apartments in cities as they are too expensive.

In slums, they will normally not have clean water or convenient space. As well as no electricity (or illegal electricity), good hygiene or even the legal right to their home! Living in shacks can be cramped, dirty and claustrophobic. Life in Dharavi, Kibera and Rocinha favela, three of the largest slums in the world, is densely populated. Slums can have unstable structures, which are dangerous, but residents still create communities and can still have strong bonds with their family members.

To improve these poverty-stricken areas, sanitation is important. This could lead to less diseases spreading quickly and cleaner homes. Furthermore, housing should improve to suitable living spaces. Residents of slums have cleaned their streets and even built their own sewage system! These are called self-help schemes. This is when people in slums try to improve their quality of life by doing or making something of use.

Today, crime is a real threat in slums.This has affected many families in slums. The government in Brazil has increased police presence in favelas and has set up youth programmes. They have also increased social services to help people in slums overcome alcohol and drug abuse. To prevent weapons and gangs, the government have created new laws and sent out the military! Due to this, life has improved in many favelas.

As a result of slums, the state might be annoyed. This is because slums are illegal settlements, and this might be land that they want to use or build on. Because of poverty in slums, the state could construct new apartments for residents of slums to reduce "homelessness" percentages. I think that slums should be shut down only if proper homes could be built for the residents to live in. This is because I don't want poverty in the world - everyone deserves a good life.

RAFFY'S SLUM ESSAY

To this day over 900 million people live in slums which is around an eighth of the world’s population. The UN – HABITAT definition of a slums is an illegal, usually unsafe settlement of packed together houses. All slums do not have running water, stable housing, sanitation or the legal rights to own their house. Slums form around the edge of cities so they can get resources from the city. The five largest slums in the world are Dharavi (Mumbai, India), Orangi Town (Karachi, Pakistan), Neza (Mexico City, Mexico), Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya) and Khayelitsha (Cape Town, South Africa).

There are many factors which affect the development of slums. This includes the fact that some people do not have enough money to buy their own houses. Also, many people, who live in rural areas, choose to migrate to a place with more urbanisation because they would get more job opportunities and a better standard of living. Sometimes when people move to the city, the government doesn’t have enough houses for everyone, so people have to live in slums.

Life in a slum can be extremely hard as there is often little sanitation and few job opportunities. But there are also some good things about living in slums. For example, you often live with your family and it is better than being homeless! Did you know that as well as differences there are also many similarities between life in slums and our life? Some of these include us both having a house and having a community. The housing in slums is unstable and cram-packed but in Kibera some houses are made of brick and cement. Houses in Dhavari and Rocinha favela, unlike Kibera, are often made of corrugated iron or cardboard. Living in a slum means having to deal with many challenges that include natural disasters, a shortage of food or crimes, gangs, and violence. As well has having to face many challenges in slums it is also a friendly community. Did you know in Rocinha favela, the majority of houses have electricity and running water?

Life in a slum is not that nice and lots of things could be done to improve them. Some of the things that can be done to improve life in a slum include better hygiene, better sanitation, improved building materials, more stable housing or less violence and drugs. Also, electricity and running water would make a big improvement to some slums. Sometimes people in slums use self help schemes to improve their homes which is where the government gives money to the slum to improve it, usually using the money for improved housing or better living conditions.

One of the biggest problems in some slums is the constant crime, violence and drug use. This is because there is no policy to stop it. Crime was a major problem in Rocinha so the U.P.P. (pacification police unit) was formed to help the inhabitants. At first the locals did not trust the police but when the amount of crimes was reduced slowly but surely, they saw it was working. The U.P.P. went through three phases; 1) they tried to scare off the gangs; 2) they arrested the remaining gangs; 3) they realised that was wrong and instead helped to work with the community in the slums and help reduce crime from within the slums. When their work was done the amount of crimes was reduced by an immense amount. This scheme changed Rocinha forever.

There are many reasons that the state might want to shut down the slums around the world but I think the main reason is because diseases from slums could spread to the city and the government would have to handle it. To improve the slums around the edge of the cities, the state could give money to the towns so they could make them better inside for the people living there. I believe that the government should not shut down the slums because, as bad as they are, the slums are still their homes and their community. Also, if you get rid of slums people will just build another slum as that is where they want to live.

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