|
Bethany visit October 2011 by Heather Jeffery and Glenys Torbet.
The main purpose of the visit was to assess the current educational provision at Bethany and to work with the teaching staff to improve current practice. My sister accompanied me on this visit and spent most of her time working alongside Minza with the Nursery/Reception children. She considered ways to improve the classroom environment and was involved in creating displays in the classroom. Glenys also encouraged the use of continuous provision allowing some children to read or do jigsaws whilst others were working more closely with the teacher. Glenys worked with the children to answer letters sent by St. Paul’s C of E Primary, Nelson and Wheatley Lane Methodist Primary, Fence. We were impressed by the ability and willingness of the children to speak English.
As concern had been raised previously by a U.K. team member regarding Morning and Evening worship we took materials to support these areas. During our visit Heather led the morning meetings based on the Blackburn Diocese Rainbow worship and Glenys helped the children to create a large rainbow which is now displayed in the library to remind the children of what they have learned. Bethany has a copy of the Values for Life worship plans and Daniel was encouraged to use this to help with Morning Worship. Topz Bible Study notes for children was also taken out to Bethany to help with material for the evening meeting. Heather led the first of these sessions and then a rota of secondary school students was drawn up to deliver the others. Ntare did a particularly good job of leading his session and now has the job of ensuring the rota continues.
It was encouraging to see all teachers teaching the lessons specified on the timetable and arriving on time and prepared for their lessons. Some of the teachers had tried hard to make their lessons interactive and interesting by bringing in artefacts. Heather looked at a sample of lesson plans and challenged staff to evaluated lessons more carefully. There appeared to be a commitment to get the timetable accurate.
A trip to Mwanza was organised in order to purchase books needed for the children’s education. The money given by ABG Golfers had been allocated for this purpose and so to begin with we used about half the money to buy Text Books and Syllabus books to support the English Medium Curriculum currently being taught at Bethany. Heather worked with the teachers during a number of training sessions which considered:
The importance of good education/teaching. (Producing a mission statement)
How to use the English Medium Syllabus to Medium Term plan. (To begin in Jan)
Using the Syllabus to write exams that demonstrate the children’s learning. (To begin Nov’11)
Behaviour management (without beating children!!).
The different approaches to teaching and learning. (Encouraging a more practical approach).
The use of a parachute and other equipment already at Bethany to promote learning.
A demonstration phonics lesson was also taught for Minza and Milka.
Heather met with each member of staff individually to discuss any issues and to revise medium term planning.
We also met with the school’s council who explained that they enjoyed being educated at Bethany as the teachers take time to explain concepts if the children have not understood the first time. They felt that being taught in English would help them in their future education.
We visited JBFC with STD 4 from Bethany as they had papers to sign in preparation for their national exam in November. We met China, Joyce and Jessica Juma who were all teaching there. It was good to see their classrooms and the children they were teaching.
We also met Ramadhani, Peter and Tabaji working at Fortes garage when the land cruiser was taken for its service. It was great to see these young men grown up and working. Yohanna has almost completed his carpentry course at VETA and will graduate in Nov.
The older girls STD 4 upwards attended an evening session on Christian marriage led by Heather and Eliada. A section of the ReQuest teaching materials was used to support this. The girls were reminded of how they could mess up their futures by engaging in casual relationships.
Concern had also been raised about the possibility that if Bethany is English speaking the children may lose their ability to speak accurate Kiswahili. Although during school hours only English was used there were times on site that children spoke Kiswahili to care workers, site workers or cooks. From my observations on this visit and conversations with Daniel there does not appear to be a danger of children losing the ability to speak Kiswahili.
The library was organised and a librarian is available at 8.00pm study time to assist the children. Each Std has also been allocated a day after school for supervised library access.
During one session Kundi Robert found a book containing an experiment about the splitting of white light into the spectrum (something she had learned about in class but not quite understood.) The following day the experiment was recreated and we created our own light spectrum.
Bethany appeared very organised. All children were aware of the daily routines and their responsibilities to complete jobs. There was a lot of land being cultivated which hopefully will yield some good crops. The children were enjoying home grown onions, tomatoes and cucumbers on this visit.
|
