Well, it’s been another full on busy day!
As expected lessons were curtailed even further with the frantic last minute rehearsals for the competition but despite this Kate and I managed to observe a little teaching.
I went to see Edward in P5 delivering a maths lesson on ‘Prime Factorisation of Numbers’. I’m not sure any of our P5’s could manage what they did today! They were being taught how to use a ladder system and then record their answers either using multiplication or in a subscript notation format. I was hugely impressed by the quality of the teaching and how he managed to keep track of the huge class. Some of the children are so quick they were astounding. Watch out P5/6 for next session as I’ll be seeing if you can do it too!
Kate thought she’d lost me as I ended up being caught up in the lesson and helping those who had a few corrections – she found me hidden in the middle of the P5 classroom!
Kate managed to observe in P6 and P3 which she also really enjoyed. Using our own observations and the school data gathered by Link we should be able to plan next week so we can support the areas of most need. I’m sure things will become clear after the community meeting on Monday!
During the lunch break we had a wander into the village next to the school. I was amazed by the satellite dishes on the roof of a little hut and more amazed at the contents of the shop below it – everything from toffee chews, ketchup, pants, exercise books and buckets! There was a group of men sitting outside engrossed in their game of strategy. Slightly different rules to Bau (in Malawi) but all based on the game of Mancala. I think I need a few more lessons before I’ll have it mastered.
We walked as far as the Health Centre at the end of the village. The children are sent there if they are sick or injured. We have heard of a few people suffering from malaria. We are making sure we sleep under our mosquito nets and are using our mossie spray – particularly in the evenings.
We also had a look at the library and were dismayed to find the newly donated books in such chaos. After lunch (coca cola and a couple of biscuits again!) Kate and I decided to do something about it so we asked Edward if we could tidy up – when he unlocked the door we found all the books placed perfectly on the shelves – he had taken it upon himself with a few children to tidy the place up. We were delighted!
The librarian, Rita, then explained her system of cataloguing books – Dewey it is not! However, she has it under control and is doing her best. The children sneak in at every opportunity and clearly love the opportunity to read anything they can get their hands on. It was a lovely moment to find Kate on the floor reading Funny Bones to a group of engrossed children.
We wished everyone the best of luck at the music festival tomorrow and will find out on Monday how they got on.
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