A flock of pink flamingos has invaded West Pembroke Primary School and people are paying to get rid of them.

The flamingos are there for a good cause. They are part of a fundraiser to buy special educational materials for the school.

“We the students and staff of West Pembroke Primary School have embarked on a fundraising venture to obtain funds to buy literacy and numeracy manipulatives for our school,” said lower school head and literacy coordinator Tenel Frost.

“The flamingos have come and perched on the front lawn of our school. In order for the flamingos to return home before the cold, students are asked to encourage their grandparents, cousins, godparents, aunts, uncles, moms, dads, neighbours, co-workers or friends to buy one in their honour or even one in memory of a loved one.”

Her hope is to have all the flamingos removed by Wednesday, the last day of the fundraiser. “The special educational materials to be purchased are called manipulatives,” said Ms Frost. “Manipulatives can be hands-on material used to help deliver a lesson in both literacy and numeracy.

“They can be calculators, play money, scales, flash cards, magnetic letters, wipe boards or other things. They are an important enhancement to the daily learning of students.”

She continued: “The best practices in teaching show that the use of manipulatives not only lend themselves to impacting the multiple learning modalities of students, they also assist in improving success rates.

“It is strongly recommended that manipulatives be used as an integral part of the learning experience, especially when used along with differentiated instruction a process and strategy educators use to ensure students are working at their optimum potential within their ability ranges.”

For more information about the flamingo drive telephone 292-5750 or pop into the school office. Donors must pay $10 to have a flamingo removed.