Days 2 & 3 in Yalding School, Farato

Wednesday, 26th March

Our daily meetings with Moses, the Head Teacher are very useful to us and to him, I think.  They mean that even the small matters do not become forgotten abad the bigger challenges, well - we have time to consider them carefully.  Moses keeps calm,  he is extremely astute and can work out what is best to do and consider in the complicated circumstances.  As we sit on the terrace of our house, overlooking the garden and banana plantation, frequently interrupted by callers requesting our time, we feel that we are making good progress at these daily meetings in growing to understand one another and to know which steps are “too Gambian” or “too English” and how to achieve a working balance in order to trove the school forward.  Here is our verandah where the meetings take place  - amidst a banana plantain and pink bougainvillaea.

After Nursery school finished I met with Abibatou and we discussed workshops that she and I want to hold.

It is a year since we have hosted one of our a whole day workshop for the teachers in Nursery schools in the village and we did agree that Abi would plan, prepare and lead the next one.  I have asked her to prepare a detailed document by Monday and assured her that I will support her and even lead some sessions on the day if she invites me,  but I see this as an important next step that she develops the skills to run these workshops in the future.  We also agreed that we should time table my visit to three of the schools that are responding actively to previous workshops and support them in developing their teaching styles. 

Alassan the Peace Corps volunteer, has suggested holding a whole staff workshop to share the ideas that he and Darbonding (Grade 3 teacher) received at  2-day workshop that the Peace Corps held in February.  We will plan this when he returns from trek on Friday.

Tony, Moses and I then met Baba to discuss with him the paperwork we need to produce for his visa application.  We hope that this will all be in order and that he will be able to go to UK at the end of May and stay for 6 weeks.  He has an invitation to work in Yalding Primary School, Kent and we plan that he will work with the Years 5 & 6 to see (a) how they use IT in the classroom and (b) how teachers organise provision of tasks for different abilities.  He will then return to The Gambia with plenty of ideas to share with his colleagues in Farato and for his Computer classes.  Then we talked about upgrading the internet because it is so slow.  There was some debate about what causes this but we need to decide upon working with the present provider, the value for money that we are currently getting and do some research into organisations that use an updated version to ensure that it actually I can be quicker. 

As we sat working on the verandah around 5 pm, we were surrounded by the Grade 9 Agricultural Studies lesson - a noisy but not vey busy scene!  Copious quantities of water were being poured amidst loud, mostly jocular, banter between the 16+ year olds and.  The garden forms a feature of the practical aspect of the national exam they will be taking in May.  We talked to their teacher, Lamin Njie, on his way home after school and he was full to the brim (in fact, brimming over) with theoretical knowledge.  When I asked him about the contents of the practical exam he expounded in detail about poultry houses, cross breeding and artificial dissemination of cows to create breeds that produce good milk and meat whilst assuring me that his pupils had covered all this.  The confusion between what is theory and what is practice is widespread in education. After nearly an hour of energetic conversation about all sorts of subjects, darkness began to descend and he bid farewell.  

We ended the day with a cold (this time) beer and a stew made of soya mince, tomatoes, aubergine, onion and curry powder with very sticky rice.  Fresh bananas for pudding. 

Thursday, 27th March

After breakfast George and Tony went into Brikama to visit the bank, get a flavour or a typical local Gambian town and buy some bits and bobs.  I visited the Nursery classes and saw some good number lessons in Nursery 1 and 3.  Ida was playing an excellent counting game with pupils in Nursery 2 (although the rest of the class were quietly sitting at their (new) desks with just one toy each).  We are very grateful for the donation which paid for the smart desks and benches, made locally by Alagie.  Story time is always popular and a great opportunity for the younger children to learn English and see books.  Few, if any Gambians in Farato would have access to story books outside the school but we do also encourage local oral story telling in the various local languages:  Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, Jola.

I then observed two reading classes - Darbonding led a very animated one with Grade 4 and spent plenty of time explaining the difference between “I am” and “I’m” on the blackboard and going over the story, helping with expressive reading.  Jorjor (Grade 1 teacher) tried hard to encourage the children to suggest the initial sounds of words like “duck” and “rabbit” but the Grade 2 pupils could not come up with the answers.  I need to investigate.  Every pupil has a weekly guided reading lesson in groups of no more than 8 and the teachers are trained to teach them decoding skills.  It is so hard for the teachers to learn this approach as they would have been taught and trained in schools where the most common way to learn to read would be to chant, repeat and memorise a text that the teacher read from a single text book.  We are making good progress in our school towards helping pupils to become independent readers - they love the stories and I highly respect our teachers' willingness to learn a very new approach/method.

Moses ran excitedly up to me as I left the classroom as he wanted to share the news that the new girl in Grade 1 who we had accepted because she has speech difficulties, could now talk.  When I met the little child she was full of smiles but not ready to demonstrate her new skill to a stranger.  

After mid-morning break, during which I did my laundry (washing clothes in cold water with lots of Omo!), we met with Moses and talked about workshops, the issue of exercise books (problems there) and cover for the two women teachers who are due for confinement leave.  We agreed to hold interviews.  

We also talked about the plan for an Open Day which was originally meant to take place at the beginning of March.  I offered to be part of the Planning Committee which has already been formed and Moses has identified a guest speaker.  Tony had the idea of taking this opportunity to sell the UBS to parents of Grade 6.  For instance, displaying their work in Arts & Crafts and demonstrating computer skills.  I feel strongly that it is important that the Open Day itself takes place when we are NOT here so that the message goes to the community that the school can run and promote itself. 

I spent the afternoon preparing posters with “Useful words” from a list that exists in a printed notebook published by Schonell.  I have two copies of the book so my plan is to give one each to Abi and Moses to keep in their offices as references to some kind of structure that informs the teaching of spelling in the classroom. It is interesting to recognise that many Gambian teachers have no concept whatsoever of rhyme and, hence, families of words (from at you can spell cat, bat, mat, etc) and so helping them to make useful choices about groups of words to teach in one lesson has been an insurmountable challenge.  When we consider the wealth of children’s literature and song (let alone adult poetry) that involves rhyme, rhythmic sentence construction, metre and play with sound, it is a challenge to encourage the teachers to start appreciating these things.  I asked a group of children in the reading Room this morning, “How many have books at home?” 2 children said that their brothers in Grade 12 lent them books but none of the others had access to books and there is certainly no culture of reading to children.  Any books that exist in a home are intended for study, memorising.

Lamin Njie, the Agric teacher came to inspect the garden whilst I was alone on the verandah and he straightway came to me and he was friendly and we talked generally about human issues and philosophy.

Adama, Ebrima Njie’s first wife, who lives in the compound opposite the school, found me in the garden taking photos of the beautiful okra flowers.  She gave me a note of expenses for her son, Ali’s treatment of a deformed lip which he has had since birth.  There are 2 people in UK who are helping to provide his treatment.  She is always very friendly and her husband, Ebrima, has 12 children and 3 wives.   Amie, the second wis  is our Koranic studies teacher in the Primary school. The 3 eldest children are adults now but the rest have either all been to our school or will do so when they are old enough.  He is VIce Chair of the Board of Directors and has supported the school from our very first day of sponsorship.  

We finished the day with a beer, local peanuts and concoction of cabbage, tinned tomatoes, foule (YES!!) beans, fresh okra and dried rosemary with sticky rice.  Tony and George had half a tin of chicken luncheon meat with theirs - lucky fellas!  I am enjoying being a vegetarian when I have a garden full of okra.

We have no electricity facility in our house so after our evening meals, we way dishes by candlelight and then to bed.  Darkness falls about 1930 and the sun is up 12 hours later.  

First day in Farato

Daily Newsletter
from Yalding Nursery & Basic Cycle School, Farato,
The Gambia

Day 1 - Tuesday, 25th March

Smooth journey and flight with amazing views over the desert and Atlas mountains - such swirls of sandy colours set against dark relief of snow capped mountains.  We are travelling with George, a graduate from Sheffield University who has been working on GamBLE’s Income Planning Group for the last six months.  It is his first visit to The Gambia, although he worked as a student in a school in South Africa.  He has volunteered to spend 10 days in Farato with his camera, making an album of pictures to show school life, village activities and individual stories.

We were met at the airport by Modou Lamin, our trained Bursar and Moses, our Head Teacher plus, of course, Abdouli, our regular driver for 11 years.  But the greatest welcome came from the pupils of the Upper Basic School who had assembled at the gates with placards stating “Welcome George!”  We walked down the line of the welcoming party rather like dignitaries but with the added touch of warm smiles and hugs for Tony and I.  We sat to listen to a beautiful speech from the Head Girl, Ameniata.  Baba, the Grade 6 teacher also spoke of the strong relationship between Yalding School and the work of GamBLE and how much everyone benefitted from the education and new ideas that GamBLE continued to bring to the teachers and pupils.  It was very moving (embarrassing, actually) for Tony and I but a wonderful and humbling surprise for George, who made a short but excellent response.  Then we took him to Tonka Kunda (our house) through the verdant garden - a joy to see okra, aubergine and sorrel maturing, after the struggles of the last year to try to grow vegetables to sell for school funds.

A Grade 8 pupil prepares the ground for vegetables - this is the beautiful okra plant with a tiny bud of okra on the left of the flower.  Ready for eating in a day or 2!

It was very dusty in the house and all the shutters were closed as our Peace Corps volunteer, Alassan, who has been living there since January, is away on trek.  So we began by opening them to let in the light and air.  The next thing that happened to me was like a slow motion action movie:  the entire window frame came away from the wall and seemed to enwrap me from head to shoulders.  I could only respond by shouting “Help!”

Although it was a shock, my only injury was a cut or two on my wrist and I recovered immediately.  We are now left with just the open window and metal bars - no screen, but apart from extra dust and dead bougainvillaea flowers blowing in, it is not too much of a problem!
Then we swept and tidied, sorted out our provisions, unpacked the school materials we had brought and then walked through the village to find rice, fruit, peanuts and margarine.  So many people greeted us along the way, mostly by name and we stopped to chat and pass the time of day. and to introduce George.  By the time it was 7 pm and getting dark, we were ready for a beer and supper.  I cooked local spaghetti and covered it with some pesto sauce that I had brought from UK, sprinkled with dried cheddar shavings that we bought in UK.  Beer was warm because we had no time to buy ice.

Day 2 - Wednesday, 26th March
Call to prayer was half an hour late but we were all awake by 4 am anyway because we had gone to sleep at 8.30 last night.  Breakfast on the verandah of the usual tapalapa (fresh french bread), local margarine and our own marmite, plus the bananas that Moses had saved for us from the school garden, covered with Tony’s UK yogurt.  George was escorted by Abibatou, the Deputy Head, to be introduced to the assembled school.  I then took him round the classrooms to be introduced to all the pupils and teachers.  He soon settled into the role of photographer which involves chatting to people and getting to know everyone.  That involved the typically Gambian pastime of sitting under a mango tree, drinking green tea (atayah) and passing the time of day with Kebba, the caretaker and Modou Lamin who cannot get on with his office work if there is no electricity.
Tony and I met with Moses to catch up on what has been happening in the 6 weeks that we have been in UK and there was a healthy balance of achievements with challenges.  Kemo is definitely trying to manage the UBS (Upper Basic School) more efficiently and effectively and the peer monitoring of teachers is proceeding according to the format and programme with the teachers responding well to helping maintain and even, increase learning standards.

………..to be continued

Tuesday 26th - Friday 29th March - A Carnival of Welcome

Monday was such a big experience that the rest of the week seems to have merged into one remaining day of the week. As I write on Good Friday there is a growing buzz of excitement as the pupils gather to create a carnival of welcome for the students from Sir Roger Manwoods School. There were no classes this morning as planned but Tony and I attended a Board of Director’s meeting. It was well attended although we were disappointed that Saikou was not present. Apparently he had been travelling and did not receive the text. Surprisingly it started only half an hour late and finished by 1230. This precision was helped by the fact that the Chair and Head teacher needed to go to the Stations of the Cross but actually it was a really efficient meeting. We proceeded through the Agenda which started with the opening time of the Upper basic School. Our problem is that although classes are supposed to start at 13.50 most students and teachers are not in class until nearly 1415. This is because 2 o’clock prayers for the LBS are in process and some UBS students attend. We decided to set the example of keeping to traditional times as closely as possible although we were informed that many mosques start prayers at 1330. Instead we decided to start at 1345 and help the LBS pupils to be more efficient and completing their ablutions. Frankly this is dependent upon the teachers supervising their classes. There are plenty of water points available in the school now and no need for the current chaos as pupils casually obtain water and prepare.


We then discussed cutting the UBS afternoon break by 10 minutes to give them 20 minutes (in line with other UBS schools) and thus avoid extending school till after dark when it was risky for students to be going home.

The second item was my suggestion that we should have a written code of practice for disciplining children who disobey school rules. The rules are displayed but although we have the Staff Handbook to specify outcomes if teachers do not conform to professional conduct, some teachers have pointed out to us that there is no such written form for pupils. In fact, visitors to the school frequently comment upon the excellent discipline of the pupils in Nursery and Lower Basic but we have to admit that the UBS seem very casual. The problem with managing these students is that we have different teachers coming in to the school to teach the various subjects, compared to the one class teacher for each LBS and Nursery class. So the collaborative team approach is not in place.

Anyway, I had written out a draft code and invited the Board to discuss it. Gambian tradition very much upholds corporal punishment although the Education Department has announced that it should not be allowed. GamBLE adheres strongly to the Education Department recommendation but for many teachers and BoD members punishment is synonymous with corporal punishment. So if we are against the latter, it means that we are against punishment altogether. Then everyone claims that the pupils cannot be controlled. Kemo printed off for us a report on the President’s recent announcement that the banning of corporal punishment is responsible for the deterioration in pupils behaviour in schools.

Anyway, despite one member of the BoD interpreting my bringing this discussion to the table as a sign that there were discipline problems in the school, and advocating that parents should be “scared” that the school they have hitherto regarded as a model of excellence is now causing concern. He also stated that the administration should be blamed for falling standards. I was deeply horrified that he should have interpreted my action in this way and felt very bad that Moses had been held to account because of me. I had the opportunity to explain my motives and confirm that the school had a high reputation for behaviour, but this BoD member was clearly not convinced. Sang, the Chair, brought the subject to an amicable close and we proceeded to my report on the workshops we have held for the teachers in the school and Nursery teachers in Farato. This brought a much more positive tone to the discussion and even led to Sang stating that he had been thinking for a long time that it was high time that the BoD should initiate and system of “counterpart funding” whereby pledging money begets more money. We made it clear that this approach to the village helping itself to extend education would be looked upon very favourably in the UK.

There were various other points to discuss as well as Tony informing the BoD that he was teaching Modou Lamin to use a new accounts system (Quicken) that would analyse the school accounts instantly and provide up to date information for all BoD meetings. He also explained that we were going to trial a new bank, GT, with 2 teachers in order to establish a more favourable system for the staff. Currently they are finding the ledger expenses and VAT crippling at the bank we have been with for years and the new bank also offers ATM facilities which means they will not have to rush to the bank by 4 pm to collect salaries. The talk of having Grade 9 classes in the mornings in the next academic year and letting classroom space to a private Senior Secondary School were postponed till next term’s meeting, but Tony requested that this meeting should be at the very beginning of next term when he would still be present. All agreed.

We then took the minibus to the airport to meet the students. It seemed ages before they came through but eventually 12 very tired people emerged feeling hot and so relieved to be here. Apparently they met at their school at 2 am when it was snowing and discovered that the minibus they were expecting had not, in fact been booked. Fortunately some helpful parents drove them to the airport in time to catch their plane. We knew what to expect as we had been part of the planning but when the students and their teachers saw the whole school plus drummers gathered by the road side to escort them about half a mile along the highway to the school junction, they were overawed. As we stepped out of the minibus, the Red Cross Youth led the singing, drumming and dancing with “Hello Tony, it’s because of you!” and celebrated the words by including Tony in the centre of the dancing. Villagers crowded around to join the school’s festivities. It was a hot and very noisy march with lots of clapping, singing and dancing and we reached the school gates with smiles and friendly waves to greet us. There followed a very long entertainment underneath the school neem tree where the children gathered and members of the Youth Red Cross thoroughly enjoyed themselves with manic dancing. More chants of “Where is Tony? It’s because of you” and the students were then called to the centre on by one to join with Tony centre stage. They entered into the spirit of rejoicing very easily, much to the joy of the children. About an hour later the shattered UK group went to their enclave of 3 tents in the shady part of the school grounds. They take over Nursery 1’s classroom as their base for the week and we have left them to rest with cold drinks. The lady teachers are cooking chicken yassa for them just outside Tonka Kunda where I am writing this. They are pounding garlic, slicing onions, soaking chicken in lime juice and washing rice, while the huge cooking pot, set on 3 large stones, boils over a wood fire.

I can hear a staff meeting going on there too and I am guessing that with the arrival of the male staff just at the end of the welcome ceremony, we are facing a slight quandary. The Government Census requires teachers to take part (5 from each school) and although only 2 of our teachers’ applications were accepted by the procedure to do the training on Wednesday, it seems that most of our male staff have been accepted “by arrangement”. As all the ladies stayed in school cooking today, it is understandable that they are a bit upset. We also face a problem with how many teachers will be in school on Monday, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it and Moses is keenly focused upon making sure that the SRM party have a productive time.

Moses went to the service of the Stations of the Cross this morning and traditionally the Christians make a food called nambur which is steamed rice mixed with condensed milk, apple, baobob seeds (like sherbert) and sugar. It is like liquid rice pudding and shared by Muslims and Christians alike, drunk from a cup. Moses’s wife had prepared a bowl for all the teachers to share and we had been persuaded to buy the ingredients for some more. I had intended to cook it with Darbonding, but I did not have time because of the meeting and trip to the airport.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we spent doing staff appraisals. Most of them were positive experiences and one that I was expecting to be challenging was, in fact extremely happy. Amie had been asked last visit to speak English in class and to be more active when she had time off in between her Islamic studies classes. To help, I had revised her time table to specifically place her in classes where English was taking place. Partly this was to ensure that she worked as hard as the rest of the staff as she is paid full time to deliver a much shorter time table. When she heard the news she was overjoyed and expressed her happiness with the greatest smile I have ever seen her produce. She also went to fetch her Schemes of Work which it turned out she had tried really hard to write in English. It was obvious she had written them herself as there were mistakes, but she had not asked someone else to do it for her instead. Result!!!!

I had such a fright the other day when I was going to our kitchen cupboard to fetch a frying pan – a gecko jumped out of it as I picked it up. My immediate reaction was to scream and jump backwards but the little creature was more disturbed than I was and sped up the wall. Of course I scrubbed the pans thoroughly and calmed down. Now we keep the doors shut tight.

Tonka Kunda Club is expanding from the 4 children that came to play Ludo earlier last week. Yesterday we were up to 20 at least and organising them with 2 Ludo games, one game of draughts, 2 jigsaws, reading books, a pack of cards and Bingo. Very dusty, noisy but such good natured fun.

Teacher training afternoons have gone well this week. It has been Maths and we have had a very enjoyable and effective time playing with ten rods, cubs and doing number bonds to 10, plus getting over excited with a Snap game that I made which requires the player to shout “SNAP” when 2 numbers make 10. I extended this to a similar game where the two numbers make factors of 5 but none of the teachers seemed to click that 7 + 8 or 6 + 9 equalled SNAP. Anyway we had fun and they sat 3 tests (which in fact were the very tests I set Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 I January). The point of doing this is only partly to assess their level. It is also to find out what might be the problems in the classroom in how basic addition and subtraction are taught. Every teacher was keen to take part and the feed back is that they want more. So I am going to try to plan a self help programme using the extra text books that we have and guide them in meeting 3 times a week to work together. Some of them want to take Grade 12 Maths exam to get on to the Early Childhood course or go to university, but every teacher who took the Grade 3 test failed to get 100%. 2 scored 75% and most scored under 50%. “Maths is fun” is our theme and hopefully the expectation that it is virtually impossible to pass the G12 exam will change in years to come. Big programme then!

The Agric Science teacher is trying to apportion the vegetable beds to groups of his G8 pupils to give them practical experience. His way of going about it was chaotic and he was clearly sinking under the loud voices and enthusiasm of the pupils. One problem was so basic it was heart breaking: the new carrot seedlings are being disturbed by students digging up the tubers of potatoes from last year’s crop to eat. Although starvation is not the problem, often the students are hungry by the end of the day and their diet is fairly monotonous. Potatoes are a treat, even raw! So I helped him set very clear targets for each group and write down the names students for each plot. I think it would be a good incentive for each group to earn money from their produce as I suspect that a prize for the best of 14 plots may result in acts of sabotage. The UBS students are young men and women now and we suddenly realise that the nursery school that we started with has become a college. These very students were our preschoolers 13 years ago!

Tony has spent a lot of the week shopping for the UK students, checking the plumbing of the flush toilet and buying recoil and onions for the cooks to use for their evening meals. But a good deal of the preparation for their visit (erecting tents, preparing electricity for lights in the classroom) has been done by Modou Lamin who worked with Tony last year. He is excellent news for the school and works hand in hand with Moses to great effect.

We met with the SRM teachers, Moses and Modou Lamin on the verandah of Tinka Kunda to go through plans for the coming week over a beer, Fanta and coke and then Abibatou called that supper was ready. Modou Lamin joined us in the students’ den and all the lady teachers served a magnificent meal which the students thoroughly enjoyed. They all used forks and spoons even though we said they could eat with their hands, but it was enough for them to grow accustomed to sharing a bowl of food. Abibatou and Jorjor had thoughtly placed the chicken separately to the bowl of rice and vegetables that Tony and I shared so that I could indulge in a really good meal. Usually I have to pick around the edges to find rice that has been saved from the flavours of the meat!

We settled the students in, one was very much in need of some tlc as he had a blister and needed a bandage. It’s been a very long and challenging day for them and I think they will sleep well. We sat in the dark on the verandah with a beer, contemplating our day and as Baba walked past he called, “Have you got a power cut?” So witty as we do not have any electricity. Slept well.

Monday 25th March - What a Day!

Phew! What a start to the week. A comparatively low key Sunday fades into the distant memory as we cope with the challenges of one day.

A Senior Management Team meeting to start the day. We confirmed the publicity about the creative writing competition that I set last week and clarified the procedure for leaving the library cupboard open to students but closing the Reading Scheme cupboard at 1 pm. There seems to have been a lot of confusion here, with the Reading cupboard NOT locked and the middle cupboard locked so that pupils who are desperately keen to read are unable to access books. Baba complained to me that this was the case and said he thought it had been set like this because I might be “peaced off” if the books went missing. I was thrilled with his concern that pupils SHOULD borrow books and if they ended up in their compounds then all to the good of siblings who might benefit BUT if the Reading scheme went missing I would certainly be “pissed off”!

Most of the morning was spent doing appraisals with the Primary school staff. We started with Kemo in Grade 6 and for the most part they were positive discussions. I used the same format for each teacher and covered both their classroom teaching, their post of responsibility and vision for the school. Baba almost had me in tears when he stated how much he loved working in the school.

And so we went into the afternoon knowing that the Staff were meeting to discuss how to work with the Sir Roger Manwoods students. We heard raised voices from the meeting and were not that surprised when Moses came to confess that they were arguing about taking part in the coming census. Apparently the 10 year exercise was going to be improved upon by inviting educated teachers to apply to become census workers. They would receive 10 days’ training and then spend up to 3 weeks collecting data. Rumour had it that each participant selected would receive D700 a day – so no wonder everyone wanted to take part. HOWEVER, if every school was entitled to send 5 teachers that left us with 1 teacher in the Primary school for the week when Sir Roger Manwoods are here! Because? This was all going to start on Wednesday (the day after tomorrow). Not much time to sort out a plan. It was unbelievably complicated to understand who had applied, what the dates were and what to do. With the help of a blue mug to signify who had the right to speak, the initial tension turned quickly to co-operative exchange and a few phone calls to collect more facts and about 1 ½ hours later, we had done all we could to make a plan. It turned out that 5 teachers had applied, although Ansumana was not sure, but many others had filled in their application forms but delayed sending them because of the arrival of the SRM students. Moses phoned Regional Office to find out if these applications could now be considered but the names had already gone forward. Even so, the Officer in charge offered to put forward 5 further names from our school if we sent them immediately. We drew lots for these and everyone accepted the situation

Other points were raised at the meeting which clearly arose from deep misunderstandings about requests we had made. The first was concerning the situation that the students arrive on Good Friday which is (a) a public holiday and (b) during the school holidays which officially start on Thursday but coom0n practice is that they will start on Wednesday. They will also want to be working in school next week, including Easter Monday (another public holiday but also in school holidays). We sent information concerning this quandary months ago. It always falls that SRM come to school during holidays and every year for 6 years the teachers have happily agreed to work a longer term and have their school holidays a week later. We assured them that although we would not require them to teach on Friday, they would be encouraged to come in at 3 pm to greet the SRM party and for this they would be given an extra day of holiday. The same would apply to working on Easter Monday. So in fact, although their government school colleagues will have 2 public holidays absorbed into their school holidays, our teachers will get 2 extra days on top of their school holiday to compensate for working. From being accused by Kemo of sabotaging the President’s public holidays we finally arrived at very willing agreement to work with the SRM students.

The second concern was about my request for teachers to put Early Morning Work on the blackboard. Was this compulsory or voluntary? It turned out that everyone was under the impression that I wanted them to come in as early as Ansumana who is frequently in his class from 7 am onwards. Because he had been praised by Moses for providing EMW for months and this having an effect on his pupils’ test results, all the rest of the teachers were terrified they were being asked to make the same sacrifice. So we worked that one out – they only had to be in class 5 minutes before the start at 8.30 and could even put the work up on the board the day before. And they did not have to spend extra hours marking it.

Oh dear, the lessons we learn in communication. I realise that the people receiving information need to understand not just the words, but the intention behind them AND the shared objective for the content of that communication. Very often when we make requests or statements, our words are repeated, partly in obedience and partly because that is the learned method of receiving information from “elders”, “seniors” or teachers. Understanding the content only comes after much deeper and longer communication processes.

There was no time after all this discussion to run my teacher workshops and so we finished the day working in the office on writing up records. The Alkalo (head of the village) sent a big bowl of cooked cassava, bean stew and a spicy sauce for us around 5.30, so we ate this with a couple of the teachers, the caretaker and night watchman. All vegetarian, so I was replete.

The results for the end of month tests for the Upper basic School were given to me and the English seems very good, but I am concerned about Maths, so I really need to speak to the teacher to see the questions and the students’ scripts.

We finished the day buzzing with what had happened and had no need to cook as we were full of the Alkalo’s food.

Wednesday 20th March - Exciting Progress

I was overjoyed on two separate occasions before 9 am today!  First of all Jorjor came up to Tonka Kunda at 8.00 to ask if I would write some more Early Morning work on the board or could she?  Could she? Could she????  I nearly hugged her!!  When I went into her classroom about ¼ hour later there were about 20 children all sitting at their desks filling in the missing letter of words she had written on the board and, more to the point, she was overjoyed at their response.  I have to forget that it is nearly 2 years ago that I first suggested that this might be a good idea to engage pupils as soon as they come to school.  It is happening and that is something to be delighted about.  I went from there to write some work on Darbonding’s board in Grade 3 and happened to call in on Ansumana at his desk in Grade 4.  He established early morning work about 2 terms ago so he is the crowned lord of following up ideas from workshops!  Anyway he asked me for more folders for his Special Needs pupils and I was amazed when I saw the completed one from Effo who has profound learning difficulties.   Ansumana had marked it all carefully and she had excelled.  That was not all though, he then told me that he had recently learnt a little about psychology and as a result had interviewed each child in the Primary School who has been identified with Special Needs and made notes on what they enjoy doing after school.  He wants to compile a profile on each one of them so that they have a positive dossier when they leave school.  He almost blanched when I told him I was so impressed that I wanted to hug him.  Instead he informed me he would type all his notes up for me to file!

From start of school till break time both Tony and I prepared documents and files on the computer to back up everything we have done so far.  We are both determined to follow through everything that we start and try to avoid being pulled into new ventures.  Having said that, I talked with Moses about the fig tree.  Ebrima had injured himself with his machete when chopping up the branches yesterday and Moses was supervising Abdoulie doing the same job.  I was relieved to hear that he had changed his mind about investing in charcoal.  Instead of paying a man to put the wood through this lengthy procedure (which could easily result in a pile of ashes costing D1000) he was going for the safer option of selling off the wood to local bakers and anyone else who wanted wood for cooking.  The only other distraction was listening to a mother coming to claim she had paid her child’s school fees waving receipts.  The argument was over the fact that the receipts were from a totally different school!  The policy of sending pupils home if they have not paid up is working but the real problem is that the policy does not wholly go into action unless we are here. 

During break Tony met with Abibatou and Amodou Lamin to plan the lunch and breakfast for Saturday when I am running a Workshop for 27 Nursery teachers from Farato and Modou Lamin is concurrently running a Red Cross workshop.  GamBLE is donating the lunch for the latter in lieu of a cash donation. 

In the middle of my meeting with Abi Sanna had introduced me to a gentleman who was organising Tag Rubgy Leagues in The Gambia.  I had in the past been in email contact with him and Bruce, my brother, had connected me to him through a lady in UK called Margaret who worked with UK Rugby Clubs and the Tag Rugby movement in The Gambia.  I had asked him to wait for me but, I admit totally forgot, so when he stepped forward literally as I walked towards the teachers in the classroom I could not avoid talking with him.  This made me very late and I have always prided myself in demonstrating the importance of teachers being on time and prepared in the classroom.  Of course, everyone was very understanding and we started straight away with more handwriting.  I was extremely pleased but also very surprised that every single teacher was able to write perfectly within the handwriting lines, whereas yesterday many of them struggled.  It seemed like instance success!  We continued with sound building exercises and everyone seemed very enthusiastic.  I do hope that this approach filters through to the classrooms so that pupils are encouraged to work out spellings and reading from the skills and clues that they build up.

Straight after the workshop I returned to Tonka Kunda and put the kettle on for our lunch of hot bouillon.  Tony was still in the office on the computer but he came up to the house and we sat down at 3.45 for our simple lunch.  I had promised the Grade 6 pupils they could come to Tonka Kunda Club and called to them.  “Wait a minute” came the reply from somewhere among the banana trees.  Then 4 girls appeared and told me to close my eyes.  I did so and when I opened them I was presented with 4 huge bouquets of bouganvilla flowers.  I felt so happy.  They eagerly settled down to Ludo and within a few minutes we received the message that Kemo was ready for a meeting with us and Moses.  So we abandoned our drinks, left the girls playing with instructions to return the game ot the office when they had finished and settled in Moses’s office for a meeting about the Upper Basic School (UBS).  We covered every aspect and all agreed that clear and regular records of staff attendance, staff qualifications, pupil attendance and test results were essential.  We are working towards proving that this school will be a UBS that parents will pay any amount to send their children to, but in the present situation we are seen as an experiment.  All the more reason to be diligent about records. 

After 1 ½ hours we returned to Tonka Kunda to write up more records, but sitting waiting for us under a tree was a Nursery teacher that came to our workshops in 2006.  She had seen us at the Independence march past and came to visit.  She spent a good half hour with us and asked to be remembered to Sarah who came from Kent to work in the school in 2006 and had had her hair plaited by this teacher.  It was really humbling to think she had made such an effort to continue a friendship that started so casually 5 years ago!

It was 6.30 pm and we really had not stopped all day.  So we settled on the balcony with an early beer to write up records. Supper was curried cassava and yellow split peas with a cucumber salad.  One pot cooking is required as the gas for the second burner is finished.  We played 2 games of draughts and then fell into bed.

Tuesday 19th March - After the Rain

Delighted at wake up and shake up (the school assemble for active movement and song) as introduced by the students from Sir Roger Manwoods School last year.  It is an excellent way of encouraging punctuality and alerting the brain.  But the delight was in a tiny Nursery 2 child leading the session.   So far the Grade 6 pupils have shared the lead occasionally with grades as young as Grade 3, but this was a treat and the tiny boy knew every word and calmly waited for the entire school to copy him.

Tony and I then had a meeting with Moses at 9 am about running the Upper Basic School.  Tony and I are both reading a fascinating book called “After the Rain” which I came across in South Africa and it is enlightening in terms of leading and managing in Africa.  Whilst not making allowances for different cultural circumstances, we can draw closer to working efficiently together when we understand the characteristics of different participants in the running of the school.  The author compares all leaders to different African animals: lion (centre stage, retiring but definitely presiding), snake (not very friendly and hisses at everyone but her input should not be underestimated) , eagle ( watches, waits, observes, assesses, analyses and then swoops), elephant (watches everyone, keeping out of the way).  I see the Eagle in Moses, albeit a very benign one!  Certainly no talons.

Later Neneh (the nursery mother) arrived with her adopted son, Ebrima Jallow, who has just left school and wants to volunteer to come to our Primary school to better his own education and help out.  We were impressed with his fresh honest approach and promised to put his case to Moses.
I observed 2 teachers with individual reading classes.  I am thrilled that the sessions now seem to be established and regular, I could wish for more use of flashcards and phonic aids to recognising words.  Instead the teachers just repeat “No, try again” when a child does not know a word.  But at least we have a system in place and the fruits are definitely flourishing in the classroom and exams when so many more pupils can read the questions!

Straight after school I ran an hour’s workshop with the teachers which centred on handwriting and reading skills.  The response was really eager and receptive and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.  About 12 turned up and they really loved trying to improve their handwriting using special lined paper.   When it came to making up sentences with alliteration, they excelled with their ideas.  Please, now can we take this energy and enthusiasm, let alone understanding, into the classroom?

When I returned to Tonka Kunda after this a small group of Grade 6 children were waiting to ask if they could play games.  Oh, how lovely Tonka Kunda Club is back.  For a few visits we have missed the groups of children who come to ask for drawing materials, books to read and games to play.  So it was with real joy that I found Ludo and Jenga for about 8 children to play.  They were in school for Computer Studies but had arrived early.  When they went at 4 pm to their class the message had obviously spread and the children who had just finished Computer Studies came across to play games with us. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon making a Sound Wall, creating new folders for Grade 1 special needs children and committing various notes to the computer.

Tony spent all day working with Modou Lamin to transfer the accounts to Quicken, sorting out salaries and talking to the man who has offered to turn the fig tee into charcoal (for a whacking fee of D1000).

We finished the day with the news that the goat that was sacrificed to the Independence celebrations and gave the school D1000 should never have been selected.  The sole criterion was that he was castrated and, therefore of no future use, however once the children had caught him, the 3 male teachers slaughtered him only to find that he was a complete male.  The castrated one is still happily grazing around the compound.  Ooops! 

Tony cooked home grown cassava (courtesy of Ebrima, nightwatchman) with rice and tomato sauce, we played a game of draughts and then fell to bed.

Monday 18th March - Encouraging Signs

Up to the call to prayer and a real working day.  Delicious fresh bread and tomatoes for breakfast but we have run out of coffee.  8 am on the dot the Senior Management Team arrived for a meeting and that went smoothly and efficiently, followed by assembly which was not that memorable: something about speaking English instead of the “vernacular”.  The nursery children had been sent home as no one remembered to tell them on Friday that they did not need to be in today due to their long day at Independence on Saturday.  All the staff were in and they were surprised to be sent home too!  Sohna (Nursery 1) has started College as the Early Childhood Development course runs in the school holidays although it always starts a week early which makes it a challenge to organise cover.  She came in to visit at lunch time and asked how her pupils had been without her – not realising that they had been given the day off.  Planning ahead (or even following traditions that every year Nursery Schools have a day off after Independence celebrations) rarely seems to be incorporated in Gambian life.   Perhaps we presume too much to know what tomorrow brings and to set our actions accordingly?

I started with a tour of the school to greet the classes and teachers.  Tony’s plan to train Haddy (G2) to monitor the text books fell at the simple fence that she was not in today.  So he went straight into training Modou Lamin to use Quicken whilst I met with Abibatou to discuss how she runs the Nursery.  We inspected the Nursery classrooms and I asked her to pick out the aspects of each one that indicated that stimulating learning was going on, that children’s work was being displayed and that the learning aids were clean, tidy and up to date.  Nursery 1 definitely scored the highest in these respects and Nursery 2 & 3 suffer from dirty walls and dark concrete floors.  We need to provide new furniture in Nursery 2 which is using recycled small tables and chairs that have been in the school from almost the start and all the backs of the chairs are broken.  In November we replaced the furniture in N3 with locally made tables and benches and we plan to do the same with N2 BUT we will not use the same welder man.  He just does not seem to be able to measure or follow instructions and once too often have has supplied goods that are far from good quality. Moses told Tony off quite severely for accepting his shoddy work last time!

I popped, unplanned into the reading classes and found that I had to give a lot of guidance to Jorjor and Lamin about helping children to read the individual words, using clues such as initial sounds.  There is still far too much of the teacher reading and the children copying, but overall the level of independent reading is definitely increasing.   Old ways die hard and my attempts to support and train the teachers seem to infiltrate very slowly.  But I would surely take a long time to absorb new ways of teaching a new subject, such as car maintenance, I guess.  We all need familiar hooks upon which to hang our new learning and plenty of time, practice and inclination to secure it into our teaching methods.

Then I met with Moses and we discussed monthly tests and the need for good foundation in the four rules of Maths.  We also agreed to follow his plan to collect in samples of English exercise books from each class room.  He reminded me very strongly to take the samples randomly myself and not to accept those offered by teachers.  Once we had done this he, Abibatou and I settled down after school to go through them.  It took 2 hours but we found some good things – high standard of hand writing, some evidence of creative writing in Grades 4 & 5 and quite a bit of differentiation in tasks set for quicker and slower children. 

Tony went to observe Lamin give and Arts & Crafts lesson which was totally theory but he assures us that he gives 2/3 of his lessons as practical.  And I have been invited to one on 2nd April!!!!   He showed me some fascinating mats made of dyed hessian looped into more sacking and backed with plastic rice sack.  Ingenious, attractive and practical!

I finished the day typing up my notes and analysis of the English exercise books and I am sitting in the staff room to juice up the lap top and as I write I can through the open door,  see the 4 goats springing and gambolling around the compound.  They have been feasting from the fig fruits of the fallen tree and I suspect that they are more than a little tipsy!

Tony is immersed in accounts in the office but it is getting dark and that happens very quickly here.  So it is now time to go back to Tonka Kunda, start cooking our poppadums that we routinely have with a cool beer before cooking supper.  I think it will be a sauce of tomatoes, onions, herbs on pasta.

All in all a productive day with lots of positive feelings as well as clear ideas about moving forward to improve learning standards.