Friday, last day in school

Friday 17^th July

The last day in school…

I wore my bright, new, (and slightly big!), Ugandan outfit to school today to the approval of the staff at Nyebeya.  Since James was heading off to adjudicate we found him giving last minute instructions to Nelson (the DHT) who was going to have to represent the school at a meeting in Masindi that had been called to discuss HIV/Aids education.

If the government or district need to contact HT’s to call them for urgent meetings they announce the meetings on the radio for the previous two or three days. Somehow the message always gets passed on to those who need to know, modern jungle drums indeed!

The government is concerned about the rates of HIV/Aids and has implemented a national programme to raise awareness. They are trying to encourage schools to offer counselling and guidance as well. We were encouraged to hear that people are becoming more open about their HIV status and that nearby clinics offer testing whenever anyone wants to check.

One teacher in the school had discussed the issue with the HT who was very supportive about their health and the need to miss classes occasionally in order to collect anti-retroviral drugs and have a check up.

We were concerned that classes would be disrupted again due to teachers being away but the school seemed to operate very efficiently this morning. We clocked Chris, a P7 teacher, coming in late but then it transpired that he had been up all night trying to find his children who had taken shelter from the storm in a different village. By the time the rain had eased it was dark so they had decided to stay where they were. Although many have mobile phones in Uganda very few have landlines and often mobile signals are not in range. It wasn’t until the morning that Chris had located his children miles from their home and brought them with him to school. Considering the National theme for the Music, Dance and Drama festival was the safety of children in light of a few kidnappings, among other things, it was no surprise that Chris arrived late looking tired but relieved.

Kate and I went into Sarah’s P3 class and observed an excellent lesson. After the chaos of introducing slates to her class to do the ‘show me’ strategy she showed us how it could be done calmly and effectively as part of her literacy lesson. The children were all engaged and all seemed to really enjoy the lesson, as did we!

In the P1 class with Mary-Gorretti we saw another great effort at making a phonics lesson lively, interactive and fun using simple resources. It was so encouraging and positive that it made me think that all the teachers need is a wee bit of guidance and motivation to inspire them to carry on. They have such large classes and sometimes it is very difficult to engage all learners. We discovered that children with additional needs had been identified but differentiation was not always happening. They are facing many challenges but improvement is happening.

We finished the morning with a staff meeting to clarify some questioning strategies that we had not had time to cover on our Tuesday meeting earlier in the week. Many of us are guilty of asking too many closed questions but to improve the quality of the interactions between pupils and teachers and improve critical thinking and cognitive engagement, rather than rote learning everything, it is essential to work on higher order and open questioning techniques. The staff were all up for it and some seemed to be very aware of it already. There are certainly some strong teachers in the school who are keen to take on new ideas to improve their teaching which is very encouraging to see.

Back at the hotel it was quite sad to think that had been our last day in school so Kate and I –went shopping! We had a wander through the bustling market and purchased some Ugandan coffee and Masindi honey from the ‘Lucky 7’ supermarket.

We had been requested to be back for 6pm sharp as ‘something’ was scheduled to happen. We were beginning to wonder if the Ugandan VP was coming to speak to us! However, nothing quite so political and something very kind that Jim had organised – a surprise cake made by Mike who’s father had been a teacher and had studied in Moray House. He lived opposite the hotel. His son can certainly bake a fabulously delicious cake. We kept half for the Saturday farewell lunch with our HT’s…

Dinner was back at the Court View for a lovely chicken curry.