Woodlands Primary School is in a deprived area of Heideveld, just outside Cape Town. With 800 pupils keen to learn, they face numerous challenges to stay in education including single parent families, alcohol & drug abuse, gang culture & poverty. School is a safe place to learn and receive a hot meal every day.
The average school leaving age is just twelve years old and the school has limited equipment. The pupils and staff are about to move into a new school building.

As part of the 8 year Link, both schools visit their partner school and work with pupils and take part in cultural visits. In addition Larbert High raises funds as a whole school for the Library and Literacy Programme, and to provide scholarships for selected pupils to move onto High School which they may have been unable to do.

Larbert have had 10 successful trips to Cape Town. Over £30,000 has been raised for the link to support on-going work for the library, some vandalism rebuilding and garden projects to name a few.

One of the ventures that contributed to this is our annual Canal Cycle, initiated by pupils and in its 8th year.

This year, due to Covid-19, instead of our usual Sunday cycle along the canal between the Falkirk Wheel and Edinburgh Lock, our staff and pupils will be cycling, running or walking the 33 miles (53.1km) on their own or with family over the week 15-19th June. We will track everyone’s journeys and have set ourselves a target to raise £1,200 which is the amount we would need to provide the scholarships for 2 of the pupils in South Africa.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any support you can give our team to complete the challenge. In the current climate, the scholarships are even more important so the pupils can return to school when they reopen. Unlike the majority of our pupils, online learning has not been an option for Shiloh and Jaydene.