19th June

It’s coming up to the end of term and all schools are starting to get busy. Our school is no exception!

At the moment I am working with the teachers and the rest of the staff to plan a Sports Day/Parents Day, which will finish the summer term off. The morning will be taken up by activities like wrestling (yes, really – the children’s choice!), running, high jump, gymnastics and a ‘Staff vs Students’ football match. Then in the afternoon we will be holding the traditional ‘Parents Day’ where the parents hear reports on how the school is progressing, see dance and music presentations, and see students rewarded for this semester’s marks.

Parents Day is really important for the school community. Most of the parents of our students haven’t had any education and cannot read or write, so it’s no good sending home letters or reports about their children’s progress. Also, they spend a lot of their time working in their fields or looking after babies at home, so they are not likely to pop into school for a chat with the teachers (we are in the process of introducing a program which will get mothers into the classroom teaching traditional skills, but that won’t start properly for a little while).

Consequently, Parents Day is a really important way to keep them updated and for them to see how well their children are doing. It’s also a great way to keep promoting the value of their children being in school, and to address some issues such as attendance, which we’ve been having a hard time with recently.

But the Sports Day is a new thing! I originally came here to start strengthening the extra curricula activities, and this is my first big full school event. Hurrah! The teachers are keen, A and Ab are excited about it, and the students are practicing their skills. ‘Heats’ will be held next week to decide who will compete on the day (with the best will in the world, we can’t have 200 students competing in every event – and they would, given the chance!) and posters will start going up around the school compound.

A big focus for Sports Day and Parents Day is rewarding the children. Building confidence – particularly in the girls – is really important, and rewards are a good way to do that. They are also a great way of getting specific help to the students: we give clothes and shoes to the students as rewards for ‘student of the week’, and dictionaries for the three students in each class who get the highest marks in the end of Semester exams.

We try and focus not only on those students who get the highest academic marks, but also those who participate in lessons and in the dance and drama they do. We’re also giving rewards to the teachers, as they do work hard … and they have to deal with me as well!

We’re also getting ready to move into our new classrooms. The building will be finished very, very soon (fingers crossed) and new Grade 1 intake will start in September. I’m working with the teachers to get good wall displays up which support the learning, and to make the best use of the classrooms - space for active learning, a reading space, a science table, that kind of thing. We are lucky that we have decent sized classrooms, and I want to make the best possible use of them.

Unfortunately, we do have a slight hitch in the sense that we don’t seem to have enough tables to furnish all four classrooms. So, I’m trying to organise another ten or so tables before September. Oh, and a blackboard or two.