Val Oldham and Sandie Reilly
of Woodchurch High School Engineering College, Wirral, UK report on
their experience of a School Linking Visit to Kanah High School,
Eastern Uganda, Africa on 10-17 June 2006.
Type of Project
School Linking Vist.
Partner Schools
Woodchurch High School Engineering College, Wirral,
UK.
Kanah High School, Eastern Uganda, Africa.
"This visit was an absolutely wonderful professional and
personal opportunity. We were hosted by Emmanuel Okware,
Chair of Governors from Kanah High School, who spent the whole week
with us and ensured that at all times we were extremely well looked
after. Everyone that we met was so friendly and welcoming and
we were given the chance to meet a wide range of Ugandan people
e.g. the local MP, the Chair of Tororo council and all his
councillors, the Bishop of Tororo, Richard and Irene at The British
Council in Kampala and the Director of Uganda Tourism. Places of
interest visited or seen were: Bujagali Falls on the River Nile,
Lake Victoria, the Kenyan border, a rural market and Mount Elgon.
We took about 400 photographs and over an hour's worth of video
footage; both of which are being used in our school and with the
wider community."
Main Objectives
The main objectives of the visit were: to visit the school,
find out about it and the Ugandan curriculum, and to meet and work
with the staff; to identify areas for curriculum projects, some in
one school, others in both; to formulate a partnership agreement
that reflects the needs and aims of both schools; to gather
information for use as teaching resources at Woodchurch High School
e.g. in Geography, Citizenship lessons, and to discuss and share
current curriculum materials.
Day one
The time spent at Kanah was absolutely invaluable. The
first morning we were welcomed at an assembly with singing and
dancing, drama, and speeches. Much to our amazement a number of
elders, local government ministers and all the governors had been
invited to the school for the occasion. After the welcome
assembly there was a question and answer session, which was quite
difficult since initially we found the pronunciation a challenge.
Then came lunch, eaten with fingers for the first time, and a tour
of the school grounds.
Activities during the next few days included:
- An assembly for every pupil taken by us, when we explained
about our school, the sorts of activities pupils had been doing
about Kanah and the Kanah students had the chance to ask us
questions.
- A meeting with the English staff, head and deputy.
- A meeting with the Science staff, head and deputy.
- A meeting with the governors and Senior Management Team to
negotiate a partnership agreement.
- Visits to 2 of Kanah's feeder primary schools.
- Visits to local homesteads near the school
- Lesson observations in English, Art, Science and
Geography.
- Team teaching in Geography and Science.
- Team teaching in Art which resulted in Kanah pupils doing Art
work which we have brought back to school with us.
- Discussion session with the girls of the school
- Exchange of written questions between pupils from the 2
schools
- Lunchtimes spent with small number of pupils.
- Looking at the vocational facilities (onsite barbers and
welding workshop)
- Discussions with Senior Management Team about management
issues, e.g. awards, attendance, staffing
- Farewell assembly
Specific outcomes achieved were:
- Increased knowledge and understanding about teaching and
learning styles, school organisation, management, facilities and
curriculum at Kanah High School
- Increased knowledge and understanding of life in Uganda
- Ugandan newspapers for our Media department
- Letters and Art work from Kanah pupils to Woodchurch
pupils
- Visits to and links made with 2 Ugandan primary schools (Orago
and Tuba)
- Named teacher-teacher links to share good practice in both
directions
- Partnership agreement
- Links between Wirral Mayor and Head of Tororo Council
- Transfer of music between the schools
Benefits
The benefits to Woodchurch
High School pupils and staff are immense in terms of curriculum
support and resources in the following areas: Citizenship at
Key Stage 3 -global citizenship, interdependence etc, Geography at
Key Stage 4- input into work on LEDCs, PSHCE- raised awareness of
life in Uganda through form activities, assemblies and PSHCE
lessons; Science- video footage about proposed site for new dam to
be incorporated in teaching about renewable energy sources, photos
of African textiles to be used in lessons and at the Homework Club;
English- continued letter writing to individual students.
What we have learnt will be disseminated and evaluated through
whole school assemblies (1500 people),displays of Kanah pupil work
and photographs, meetings with relevant subject teachers, feedback
to senior management, primary heads and governors, visits and
discussions with the Mayor and Mayoress of Wirral, Wirral
International Liaison Officer and dissemination to other groups
such as Woodchurch Neighbourhood Renewal; also newsletters to
parents, governors and local community of both schools, meeting
with the local Rotary Club chairperson to pass greetings from
Tororo Rotary Club, and use of the school website and
network.
Future plans
We are most keen to nurture this wonderful link and develop it
in a number of ways. Each school will set up a co-ordinating group
comprising staff, governors and pupils who will coordinate,
stimulate and review progress. Following discussions at Kanah the
details for joint curriculum projects around the topics of water
and energy will be finalised. A joint application will be written
for a Global Schools Curriculum grant and TIPD funding, both of
which will involve the sharing of good practice. Year groups in the
2 schools will be linked up, and the agriculture and horticulture
groups in both schools will report back to each other about
progress. Targets for international work are written into our
2006-2007 school development plan and we will encourage our feeder
primary schools to develop links with primary schools in Tororo. A
more detailed action plan for developments (showing tasks, staff
responsible and deadlines) will be jointly formulated.
The partnership with Kanah has already had a big impact on
pupils and staff at Woodchurch. They are beginning to see
themselves as global citizens with a firm shared responsibility for
others and for the environment . Students and staff in both schools
now share a connectedness which will hopefully become even stronger
in future through the use of pupil-pupil and teacher-teacher email
and videoconferencing. The global village is becoming a
reality."
Feel free to contact Val Oldham, if I you would like more
information.