May 2020 Newsletter - Educational Development Project
A holistic approach to education for all
Last year TUSP was lucky enough to receive lots of individual donations, as well as two grants, for our Educational Development Project. The donations have had a big impact on the development of our Teacher Training Programme, the School Library Programme and the School Mothers Programme, and we’re delighted to let you know we’ve made great progress in each area over the last few months.
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Teacher Training:
Consultant Roderick Hicks from The African Educational Trust came to spend five days at Bumakenya Primary School in February. He focused on observing lessons and giving personalised feedback sessions to each of our ten teachers, as well as evening workshops every day after school on topics the teachers requested. Roderick’s first visit was one year ago, so he was also looking to see if the teachers were implementing the feedback they had previously received, as well as to identify new areas for improvement.
His overall impression was that the teachers were engaged and competent, and had absorbed the learnings from the previous training. Improvements in previously highlighted areas, such as effective use of textbooks were noticeable, and those teaching the lower grades were using a more phonic approach to the teaching of reading. In addition, they were mostly using English and Lumasaba (local language) appropriate to the learners’ age, and in alignment with government policy.
This year’s workshop topics included:
‘Chorus’ reading and answering vs silent or partner reading
Use of the library and library books - reading for pleasure
Shared reading
Assessments
Preparing ‘P7’ (the oldest year group) for Secondary School entrance exams
Student-centred lesson planning.
The teachers were happy and positive about the training and are always enthusiastic for new learning opportunities, and so a week full of learning and development was a big success.
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School Library Programme:
The school library was introduced in earnest in October 2019, facilitated by The African Educational Trust with books donated by Book Aid and various other sources. Bumakenya Primary School now has a fully functioning library of over 700 books, and we were lucky enough to have library expert Jenny Lewis train the teachers on how to use the library and encourage children to borrow the books to read for pleasure.
Jenny returned in February this year and was hugely enthused by the use the library is receiving. She also delivered workshops to the teachers on ‘shared reading’ - a technique involving pairing established readers with children who need to develop their reading skills to support them in catching up. This is important at Bumakenya as classes are large, with usually nearly 100 students per class, meaning individual attention is not always sufficient.
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School Mothers Programme:
The School Mothers Programme has taken great shape over the last school term as our school mother Agnes has been working to conduct fortnightly workshops with the children on topics such as children’s rights, preventing early marriage, managing menstruation (including sessions on how to make reusable sanitary pads) and entrepreneurial sessions where the girls learn skills that they can channel towards business ideas, e.g knitting. Agnes has also been advocating in her community on issues surrounding female children, and has been speaking at community events in order to spread the messages wider. Agnes has even been asked by other school heads to conduct the programme within their schools!
As well as this, a team of senior female leaders from the school went to Oyam (a district in northern Uganda) in January for training with other school mothers as part of The African Educational Trust’s wider network for training on topics such as child rights, child protection, advocacy and workshop planning. The training was greatly beneficial in learning from the experiences of other ‘School Mothers’, and it also allowed us to identify a need for further specific knowledge on topics such as HIV/AIDS. Therefore, TUSP is seeking to partner with a Sexual and Reproductive Health organisation to get specific training and guidance on this.
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So, in summary, real progress has been made in the latest phase of the Educational Development Project, and we are incredibly grateful that your funding has allowed this to continue. Educational intervention must take a holistic approach in order to tackle the various barriers to quality education and we are grateful to all of our supporters and donors who allow us to support Bumakenya school in all things learning!