Approximate number of students – 320. Approximate number of staff – 23. Beit Sahour is a village adjoining Bethlehem built on the site of the old Shepherds Fields. There is a flourishing Christian community with an attractive Parish Church (picture to left) where Fr Majdi Siryani is the Parish Priest. The school was founded in 1864 and is situated alongside the Church. At present it caters for boys and girls in the kindergarten, primary and middle grades. The school has intermittently been closed due to the military presence. The cost of running the school in 2000/2001 was $215,000.
Children at the School were patiently waiting to have their school upgraded to a full high school offering the full facilities of classroom space, science labs and computer labs. This has now largely been completed all thanks to Fondacion Promocion Social de la Cultura, a generous Spanish non-governmental organization, and also to funding provided by the Trust, which is going to furnish and equip the science labs. The construction work for the new extension began in mid June 2002.
“My dream is to have a high school as other schools in my city” said Ghaith Shomali, a ninth grade student who would be forced to leave the school to continue his education elsewhere if the new construction did not get completed by September 2002. The eighth grader, Diala Bannourah believed: “I expect that if Fr. Majdi Al Siryani tells the constructors to build a high school, none of my classmates would leave because we will be the first group who will finish the twelfth grade in the Beit Sahour High School.” Thus everyone, including teachers and students are very excited about this new extension. Ms. Raba, the English teacher, is very happy to see the school expanding but she does not wish to teach the older grades.
The upgrading began at the School during the academic year 2000/01 as part of a four year plan. Funding was given by the generous organization from Spain for upgrading and improvements in a number of the Latin Patriarchate Schools of Jerusalem. The first step was to provide basic maintenance in the Beit Sahour School with general painting and paving of the playground. During the first year this important fund was shared for the same purpose with other schools that needed basic maintenance, like the Aboud Latin Patriarchate School and the Ain Arik Latin Patriarchate School.
The new extension will allow the school to provide education for the science stream and the liberal arts stream for the last three years of high school. Specifically this means five classrooms with additional two rooms for a counselor or social worker and extra curriculum coordinator. The students are looking forward to this wonderful new addition in their school. A’lam Al Refai, an eighth grade student points out: “…having a high school would be a fantastic idea to make our school more popular.” Issa Salameh says: “I went to the Latin School since I was four year old, it is very beautiful…I don’t want to change my school…I think, one day there will be a high school and I hope this day comes before I change schools.”
Although the classroom space will become available by September 2002, if the construction proceeds as scheduled, the school principal, Mr. Issam Bannoura prefers to expand the high school one academic year at a time, allowing space for the students attending the Beit Sahour School already to continue to the next level class without overcrowding the school by taking on too many new students. Thus the expansion was designed to accommodate the current students, instead of forcing them to change their school environment, including their teachers and friends, when they reached the ninth grade. Further funding will be needed for furniture and equipment.
Follow this link for more information about the Beit Sahour school, as well as about other Latin Patriarchate schools in Palestine.
Follow this link for more pictures of the school and its pupils.
