Hello!
Day 1 in Spurgeons and what a great day it
has been!
We started off with a quick assembly in the
bit of playground that the school still has access to (the rest is currently a
building site as a new church and 5 classrooms are being built).
Everyone was introduced, and the children
were very impressed that there were 3 mums there with 4 children – Ally with
Jake, Carey with Naomi, and Chris with Gillian and Helen. And of course as the
children have met Helen every year now at least once a year for the past 3 or 4
years, they were delighted that she has her mum and her sister with her this
time, having taken her daughters with her on past trips!
After that we split into our various groups
and headed off to do the different tasks we have lined up.
Helen, Jake and Ally taught P2 class in the
morning, and then P4 in the afternoon (although Helen missed that lesson),
whilst Chris, Carey, Naomi and Mary did P1 in the morning and then P3 in the
afternoon (Mary missed that one). The lessons went really well and it was a
good move to teach the younger students first and build confidence before going
on to teach the older ones tomorrow.
Gillian, an advisory teacher in the UK, has
had a good day with Oscar, the headteacher, discussing various aspects of school
development and school improvement, looking at data management, and school
statistics, and he is definitely enjoying having the chance to talk about all
sorts of different aspects of what he does, with someone who understands the
issues from the inside.
Meena, a social worker in the UK, has spent
the day with Rose, the school social worker, learning about the many aspects of
her work, and between them discussing new ways that she might be able to
overcome some of the obstacles she faces, and find new methods of approach.
Mary, our seamstress / costumier, spent the
morning helping in class, and then in the afternoon she went to the tailoring
centre to meet the ladies who are keen to develop their sewing skills under her
tutelage. The initial plan was for Mary to do the sewing workshops in the
afternoons only, but the ladies are so keen to learn that Mary is now going to
do full days with them, rather than just afternoons! And in exchange they will
teach her Swahili!
Tomorrow will be a similar programme, but
we will be teaching the older children, and also Ally will start doing some
mentoring and self-esteem workshops for the staff, and Carey will do some
health education lessons.
Due to all the building works the school is
somewhat limited in outdoor space, and as a result there isn’t really any space
for playing outside – just as well that wasn’t a major part of our plans! It’s
quite an eye-opener for us Brits who are so used to all the health and safety
side of things as well, as we see builders mixing cement on the playground, and
massive dumper trucks of boulders being delivered, whilst the children go to
get their morning cup of porridge! But the show goes on and everyone knows
where they can and can’t go.
So, that’s it for today. Thanks for all your
support and tomorrow I’ll see if I can post some photos as well!
Best wishes
Helen, and team J
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