Students at St George’s Preschool proved that the Bermudian community spirit blossoms early when they came together to fix their playhouse that was knocked down in Hurricane Nicole.

On checking the playground for damages on the Friday morning after Nicole, administrator for St George’s Preschool Jana Pitcher was disheartened to see the plastic Playskool house in pieces across the playground.

She thought it “ready for the garbage” but on second thoughts she decided to wait to see what the children would do when they discovered it on their return to school the following Monday.

Ms Pitcher said: “We are out on the playground and I hear someone shouting ‘Oh my gracious, the house is broken all up!’

“As I observed, I asked the question, ‘What do you think happened?’ The children, who had been discussing how their families got through the storm, were quick to suggest that the house was blown around by the hurricane.”

Ms Pitcher said that as the discussion continued she noticed that some of the children had taken it upon themselves to go and collect the pieces of the house.

She continued: “I quickly ran inside to collect my phone to document the process I was sure would unfold.

“Soon, one of the children suggested that they move the house over to a concrete slab because, ‘It’s harder and we can all work on it’.

“Another commented, or rather directed, ‘Go get all the pieces!’

“Before long, close to 15 children were in on the action, dragging house parts over and trying to fit them in. They had a bit of trouble getting the pieces to fit, so I was asked, ‘Can you just bang this in?’”

Eventually, the last thing for the children to do was place the roof. Together they lifted, shuffled and placed the roof before shouting out, ‘we did it!’

Ms Pitcher added: “I was overjoyed at their problem solving, tenacity, and teamwork. All on their own, they salvaged and rebuilt what was important to them and demonstrated the true Bermudian spirit of coming together and helping each other.

“It also exemplifies the capacity of children to teach and learn and grow and think for themselves to solve problems.”