Gillshill Primary School, Hull
Stephen
Corp, Deputy Head Teacher at Gillshill Primary School, Hull,
England, reports on his visit to Jack CECUP Community School,
Lusaka, Zambia on 4th – 14th June 2006.
Type of project
School Linking Visit.
Partner schools
Gillshill Primary School, Hull, England.
Jack CECUP Community School, Lusaka, Zambia.
Background
Following an OfSTED inspection of Gillshill Primary School,
Hull, in July 2003, the team recommended that my school should
endeavour to develop multi-cultural links, as our school was
predominantly white. I placed my school's name on The Global
Gateway site with the intention of building links with a community
from a very different culture to my school. Over the next 18 months
a number of secondary schools from Eastern Europe requested a
partnership. As these schools were inappropriate matches for our
needs, I declined their invitations.
Eventually, in January 2005, Mr Wiseman Banda, the School
Co-ordinator, from the Jack CECUP School in Lusaka, Zambia,
contacted me for a possible link up. This invitation appeared to be
the partnership my school required.
Jack CECUP School (Jack Community Education for the
Children of the Under Privileged) is a community school set up in
the Jack Compound – a developing township 11.5 km south of Lusaka.
The school was founded in 1999 by the present co-ordinator, Mr
Wiseman Banda, at his own expense because education in Zambia is
compulsory, yet there is no funding for vulnerable children. I
became aware that Mr Banda and volunteers work tirelessly, without
pay, for the benefit of underprivileged children. It was this
selfless dedication that drew me to developing links with his
school.
From then on, we were in regular email contact finding out
more about each other's schools. We exchanged our schools'
prospectuses, and began pen friend letter exchanges between our
pupils. Soon afterwards this led to an official School Memorandum
of Agreement between the Board of Directors (Jack CECUP) and the
School's Governing Body (Gillshill) which promoted mutual links.
[See Appendix]
As we tried to
strengthen our links, I twice submitted applications, during 2005,
for a Reciprocal Visit Grant from the British Council. On each
occasion I was informed that my application lacked a sufficiently
strong Global Dimension. However, on the second occasion, I was
informed that to help me achieve the Global Dimension element, it
might be possible for me to receive a Schools Link Visit grant as
our application was strong in other areas.
In March 2006, I was informed that I had received funding of up to
£1000 for a Schools Link Visit to Zambia, through The British
Council. Immediately I contacted my School Governors for permission
for leave of absence, booked the flight, accommodation, insurance,
visa application form, had the necessary immunisations and tablets,
and planned the visit. I was considering how to develop our "Global
Dimension" and thought this was the perfect opportunity to develop
a dialogue with our partner school. To my pleasant surprise, my
head teacher's husband, Tony Burns, had just retired from the
police force and was eager to film the event, at his own expense,
as a benefit of educational documentation for Gillshill Primary
School.
I set off with the intention of developing our own ICT skills
by providing the Lusakan school with a laptop computer and web cam
so that we could communicate through face-to-face
video-conferencing for our own benefit, whilst extending Jack
CECUP's opportunities for ICT development. Additionally we agreed
to pursue Food and Nutrition, and Human Rights (with particular
reference to Children's Rights), as the basis for our mutual Global
Dimension.
However, four
weeks before we flew out, I contacted Mr. Banda, as a gesture of
goodwill, as to which present he would like me to bring with me.
Much to my surprise, his request was not for anything
technological, as I had expected, but merely for a roof for his
school.
I was shocked at such a request and was even more so when I
received two photographs of his school's building, lacking a roof,
windows, doors or floor, and soon afterwards a short video clip of
pupils sitting on the dusty floor using their thighs as the "desk"
and taking in turns to share a pencil.
Both Tony and I were so moved by the pictures that we each
decided to raise funds to help develop the fabric of this school.
Tony went to his local public house and secured sponsorship through
having his legs waxed. For my part, I decided to have my 34 year
old beard shaved off in front of pupils and staff, to raise much
needed funds. Together we were able to raise in excess of £1250,
which we took with us as an aside to our Curricular
Objectives.
Curricular aspects
Whilst in Zambia, I
was able to handover a laptop computer, web cam and transistorised
internet connection, bought out of sponsorship funds, to Mr Wiseman
Banda. During our stay we twice connected, from an internet cafe in
Lusaka, to Gillshill Primary School, for conversations about our
visit, with pupils and staff from each school being able to have
introductions and short discussions with one other.
For our second "Global Dimension" target, we visited the
"Zambia Civic Education Service" in Lusaka. Here we met with
representatives of their organisation and interviewed them on their
beliefs and policies which were being adopted by the Zambian
Government on "The Rights of the Child". We returned with posters,
badges, booklets and other documentation which will strengthen the
mutual partnership between our two schools. Jack CECUP has a
"Child's Rights Club" whilst Gillshill has developed a strong
"Schools Council" which is responsive to local, national and
international issues.
Among the outcomes of the meeting we learned that pupils from
Jack CECUP are beginning to inform their parents and grandparents
of their own rights to good food, good accommodation and a good
education; whilst pupils at Gillshill are now considering ways in
which they can raise funds to sponsor individual pupils at Jack
CECUP School to provide them with the stationery, clothing, medical
supplies and food necessary to support their basic needs.
The third area
of Global Dimension focus was with Food and Nutrition which made us
more aware of the Zambians' limited food supply. The pupils at Jack
CECUP School attended partly out of their own desire for education,
as a way to improve their own life opportunities, but also through
the recognition that they would be provided with a bowl of soya or
millet (donated by the World Health Organisation) which would be
cooked by volunteers in the Jack Compound.
Children at the Jack CECUP School were given lessons in all
areas of Health Education, including Nutrition and Sex Education,
by volunteer helper Margaret Dokowe, who works as a nurse for the
Zambian Air Force. Through her regular visits to the school, the
students are becoming more aware of a healthier lifestyle.
Towards the end
of our visit we became more aware of traditional Zambian foods
which included various soya and millet dishes, beans, rape leaves,
lightly fried caterpillars and fried rats or mice. These foods,
though unappealing to the British palette, provided a balanced
intake of protein and vitamins for the Zambian pupils.
The ongoing effect this has had on Gillshill pupils is the
awareness to try a range of school meals, including those they have
never eaten before, and to minimise waste of food not eaten.
Posters, designed from photographs taken in Zambia, have been
strategically placed around the school dining hall. Our children
are now more tolerant of their own privileged position.
A further benefit of this project was the purchase of a range
of seeds, such as okra, less commonly found in Britain. It is my
intention to enable our pupils to attempt to cultivate these seeds
within protected school grounds. This will provide several
educational opportunities such as science (growing in a range of
soils), mathematics (measuring height growth), and D&T
(preparing a meal in the Zambian style). As our school is about to
begin its summer break, this project will be held over until the
next academic year.
Physical support
On the first
meeting with pupils and parents from Jack CECUP School, I had the
wonderful opportunity to announce to our hosts that Gillshill
Primary School would ensure a roof would be erected on their school
before we returned to England. This notification received a
rapturous applause. At the time I spoke to the audience, I was
thinking that the roof would only be essential during their rainy
season (up to 6 months long) which had previously been limiting the
pupils' educational opportunities. I was soon to learn that the
promised roof would also protect the children from the searing
summer sun, so would be of benefit all year round.
Before making the announcement, I had spoken with Wiseman
Banda about estimated costs. Over the next few days, what seemed
like a reasonably simple task of changing US Travellers Cheques
into Zambian Kwacha to purchase the necessary raw materials on the
school's behalf, proved to be incredibly wasteful with our use of
time.
We
discovered that most banks in Lusaka, including the Central Bank of
Barclays, had a limit of just $200 per day (effectively about
£100). This meant that to raise the estimated costs of £800 we
would have to queue at several banks (frequently for over one hour)
before being attended to, then spending 30 to 40 minutes going
through procedures. To help reduce waiting times we resorted to
using our credit cards to draw up to one million Kwacha (about
£150) to ease the frustration of waiting. This restrictive practice
of money exchange also meant that we were unable to spend the time
we wanted with the children we had come to visit.
As we were
now delving into personal finances to raise ready cash, we decided
to provide a concrete floor for the school as this would reduce the
dust on the children's books and paper and provide a more hygienic
surface when the children were eating their midday meal.
Eventually, we converted sufficient funds for our intended projects
so we began our tour of building merchants to secure the materials.
We encouraged Wiseman Banda to obtain the best possible deals so
that we could pay with the cash.
After two full days of standing in bank queues then touring
builders' merchants we were finally able to commence work on
building the school roof, on the Thursday evening, with the help of
local volunteers and a local joiner who was providing his expertise
for a minimal contribution.
Tony and I had made provision to go sight-seeing over the
weekend, so we were pleasantly delighted to discover the roof had
been completed in our absence and more elated to discover that the
concrete floor had been laid as well.
On our return
visit to the school on the final Monday, we were greeted by the
whole of the Jack Community – pupils, parents and well-wishers –
who were dressed in their best clothes ready for the official
handing over of the improved building.
National flags of both countries were flying from impromptu
masts. The occasion had received earlier publicity in two national
newspapers, on national radio and was now to be filmed for national
television. The event included singing, dancing and votes of
thanks, as well as the official presentation of the laptop
computer, web cam, roof and floor. This was a fitting end to our
visit as we had achieved more than our original aims.
Ways forwards
We have a number of ideas to develop our partnership. Among
them are:
- Pursuing the suggested British Council schemes referred to
above including the "Connecting Classrooms" project or, if
unsuccessful, the "Global Project". The application for the former
will be sent before the end of July.
- Holding a Zambian Evening for parents and well wishers and
providing a copy of a DVD to every family of Gillshill
pupils, featuring the most powerful images from the visit, as a
catalyst for further fundraising.
- Promoting our visit in the local media for further sponsorship
from
the local community.
- Using the above two sponsorship ideas, we have set up two
accounts
to help develop the Jack CECUP School further. The first account is
to improve the fabric of the school such as doors and windows, and
later, water and electrical connections. The second is to provide
sponsorship by direct debit or donation, to support individual
children from the school.
- Forming a committee and creating a constitution for overseeing
the above and future projects.
- Sending surplus furniture and clothing (including school
uniform) to the Jack CECUP School via a recognised carrier.
- Developing our video-conferencing links, particularly with
regards to our other two Global Dimension projects of "Food and
Nutrition" and "Children's Rights" through which pupils can
converse.
- Growing a range of seeds from Zambia and using them in a
cross-curricular project.
- Extending the scope of Gillshill's School Council to
incorporate relevant ideas from the Zambian Civic Education
Society.
- To provide a summary of this project for the British Council
magazine "Learning World" so as to engage other schools in similar
projects.
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