We’re now 8 weeks into the second term at school and things are as busy as ever. The first year students are well established, and it’s hard to remember what the school was like with only one year of students!
The start of the New Year has brought many changes to the EDP team. The departure of James Riggs and Alastair Littleton was a sad and momentous occasion at the school and their names are still often heard among the student and staff alike! However we’ve now been joined by Harriet Fisher who’s brought fresh energy to the project. Harriet has recently completed a masters in Development and Conflict Management, and has come out to oversee the creation of eagerly awaited new sports pitch and to develop the extra-curricular side of the school, as well as helping out and getting stuck into everything else that’s going on! Everyone at the school gave her a warm Ghanaian welcome, and her presence in the EDP Team is very much appreciated. Kiran has returned from the Christmas break with more energy and enthusiasm than ever, which she’s relentlessly pumping into the juice and bee projects, which are growing rapidly as a result. More on the enterprises in a bit.
When I arrived back to the Ghanaian heat from icy-cold England back in January, the second term was already in full-swing, with all of the students working extremely hard and lessons running smoothly. This year, the main focus is to register the school as an examination centre, a lengthy, multi-staged process that we’ve heard can take up to seven years! However, we’ve been putting all our energy into it, and are hopeful that we can do it much faster than that! In short, it requires us to get the General Arts and Business Programmes, the two programmes we offer at the school, acknowledged and certified by the Ghana Education Service (GES), which requires an OFSTED-like inspection from the GES Inspector Division, then once we’ve got this, we then have to prepare for a much stricter inspection from the West African Examination Centre (WAEC) who will come to check that we have the correct staffing, facilities and procedures in place for the school to be registered as an examination centre allowing the students to sit their final exams at the school.
After several early morning trips to Accra with Seth, we’re now well informed about the process, and well on the way to getting our first inspection. Seth has done a sterling job ensuring that we speak to the right people, meaning we’ve managed to fast-track a lot of the laborious bureaucracy and are well on our way to the first inspection. The staff have been a great help in the preparations, not to mention Mel, our new Secretary at the school, who’s been coming in two days a week and really helping with all the related paperwork! One big development that’s emerged as a result is the formation of a Board of Governors at the school, which is nearly complete, and includes the District Director of the GES, a good person to have on board (literally!).
Our biggest stumbling block at the moment is the full-time to part-time ratio of teachers at the school: a necessary requirement is that we have at least 70% of our teachers being fulltime. Unfortunately we can’t count the wonderful bunch of student teachers we’ve been lucky enough to have this year in the ratio, and as all teacher salaries come out of the EDP pocket, we can’t currently afford to raise the percentage to this high level. So as it stands, it looks as though the current second years, soon to be third years, will be sitting their final exams in Oct/Nov 2013 rather than June/July 2013, and will be entered to sit at an external examination centre, a process which in turn brings its own costs. However, on the plus side, it means that the students will have an extra couple of months to really swat up before their exams, extremely valuable time, especially for those in the General Arts classes as we’ve recently introduced English literature to their timetable. Accordingly, the library is now stocked with poetry anthologies, Shakespeare plays and both African and non-African literature, which the kids have eagerly delved into. The head of English has been an excellent support, coming in early and staying on late to hold catch-up classes.
Alongside making preparations for the imminent inspections, the other main focus is on recruiting new teachers for September, when we’ll open our doors to another 70 students, bringing the total enrolment to around 230 strong. Sadly, we’re going to have to say farewell to the 7 student teachers from Winneba, who’ve performed excellently in the classroom and have contributed so much to the school community. Furthermore, the universities have now changed the structure of the teaching course, so that the teaching placement will only be a term long rather than a whole year, meaning that we won’t be able to welcome a fresh batch of student teachers in September – a real shame considering this year’s success! Nevertheless, we’re hoping to maintain 3 of our current 7 student teachers for at least another year, whilst they complete their National Service.
Moving away from the academic side of the school, Harriet’s arrival has triggered the formation of many exciting new clubs, with at least one club running each evening after school: Volleyball club ( thanks to Jan Janmohamed and Caroline Keith, who visited in January, and brought with them a top class volleyball net and balls that the kids have been making the most of!), Leadership club (where prominent leaders are explored, in particular excellent African leadership figures), cadets, bee club and juice club to name but a few!
All of the kids have loved getting involved, with the leadership club having over 100 members! Looking forward, we’re planning to start a film club on Saturday mornings (yes, excitingly the IT room is now open to all students on Saturdays thanks to a dedicated local IT teacher and supporter of the school), and a carpentry club, spurred on by the arrival of 15 full tool kits from England! There’s also been talk of running a debating club and science club too. In particular, the introduction of cadets has been extremely successful, with the kids starting off where they left after the impressive display at the School Open Day last October. With a very strict Cadet Master who volunteers his time to visit each week, the cadets are now busy practicing their marching in preparation for the 6th March Independence Day parades next week - a great opportunity for the school to represent the local community!
With the aim of building a sense of school community and encouraging praise at the school, a house system has now been introduced, with each student being a member of either Avon, Dorset, Hampshire or Wiltshire house, with points being awarded for good behaviour, excellent work and sporting achievements; and points being deducted for bad behaviour. The introduction has gone down a storm, with students anxiously following the daily update of points on the score board! Next week we’re going to start some inter-house competitions which everyone is looking forward to.
Exciting progress is being made on the new land, which is soon to be a state of the arts sports pitch. With the amazing news that the kind donation will not only cover the cost of buying the land, but also the costs of clearing the vegetation, levelling the land and fencing it too, we’re on the verge of signing the contracts and bringing in the workforce!* The aim is to irrigate the grass pitch (a real novelty here in Ghana!) with the rainwater that is being collected from the school roof in two huge water tanks that have recently been installed. The kids are just as excited as we are about the new pitch; rugby balls have been brought over from the UK and Harriet is prepping the sports teacher on the rules of Rugby (not a widely played sport in Ghana) so hopefully we’ll have a rugby team formed by the time the pitch is ready. As Harriet commented, perhaps we’ll help to form the first Ghanaian National Rugby Team?! There’s also been talk of organising a whole school Sports Day in celebration of the new sports field!*
In January we were fortunate enough to host a visit from Dr Robin Collier, a recently retired GP from England, and his wife Sally, who both spent many a day tirelessly examining all the students – thankfully it turns out overall that we have a pretty healthy bunch of kids! However, not wanting to become complacent, we’ve planned for some of our weekly moral talks to be on the subject of healthy eating, exercise and sex-education. Their visit triggered lots of thinking among the EDP team, and we’ve since created a sick bay for the kids and nominated Student Welfare Teachers, who are being trained by Seth in counselling skills. The introduction of these Officers has gone down really well, and we’re hoping that this extra support will help those who come from particularly difficult backgrounds. So a big thank you to Robin and Sally for all their input!
Other exciting news is the progress that’s being made with the installation of the new science laboratory, and we hope that it will be a fully-functioning lab by September, ready to welcome the new batch of students. Plans have been drawn, cabinets and benches designed, and test-tubes bought (just yesterday in fact, along with a long list of other equipment). However, we’ve found the process of sourcing materials and equipment quite a challenge, so the first carpentry project for the kids might just be test tube racks, intricate I know, but I’m sure they’ll rise to the challenge! Sally and Robin kindly donated a skeleton which has already been used in many of the biology lessons, and Seth loves it so much that he insists it takes pride of place in his office when it’s not in use in the classrooms!
Moving onto the enterprise projects, Kiran is doing a fantastic job of building more momentum within the juice project and drumming up business in the local offices in Awutu. Demand is so high that she’s set up a delivery system each morning, often delivering up to 30 bottles of juice! Kiran’s done well to introduce the new taste of Moringa, a super-food that grows extremely well out here and is packed full of goodness, and she’s in the process of planting some trees around the school grounds. The relationship between our brand , “AbroFresh” and the University of Education in Winneba is growing fast; we’ve now got two committed AbroFresh Representatives there, who are students themselves. They have pumped in loads of enthusiasm to increase our contact base and have opened up new exciting avenues; in particular we’ve had two large orders, one for an ‘Independence Day BBQ Bash’ and the other for an HIV Awareness Conference, so trade is certainly picking up! We’re finally at the stage of making enough profit to make weekly contributions towards the running of the school - a real landmark achievement!
On the other enterprise front, although the bees are still proving quite a challenge, with several hives still un-colonised, we’ve got a keen team of students on board to help maintain the hives, and we’re ready to make our first harvest of honey in the next fortnight. Plans are emerging to start expanding the bee project, and set up a micro-finance structure in the local community, so watch this space!
The school really has become a hub of activity and is such an exciting place to be! As you can see, as ever, there’s loads going on, and I want to extend my thanks to all those who have been supporting the school behind the scenes, all your efforts are really appreciated by all the students, staff and community members alike. It was only earlier this week I had a visit from a parent, whose final comments were that he felt so blessed to be able to send his son to the school, and that the arrival of the school is a true living miracle to him!
Right, I’ll leave you on that positive note, as I’d better get back to work…lots to get on with!
Rachel
* We are pleased to announce that the sports pitch will be dedicated to the memory of Mr F.A. Hughes who died recently.
P.S. More pictures are being updated on the gallery - don't miss the one with Harriet standing in front of the new sports field!
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