Newsletter – November 2013

Dear Parents,

I hope you had an enjoyable half term break.

Kenya

As you will be aware, Mrs Jones, Miss Rowson and I visited our partner school in Kenya over the last couple of weeks. As always we were met with genuine friendship - and our colleagues and the pupils at Bilibili made us feel very welcome. We were all humbled to see the progress that had been made and I am delighted that the hard work and support of the pupils and parents at St. Andrew’s has been matched by the commitment to the various projects at Bilibili by children, staff, parents and the local communities. 

We were able to take part in the harvesting of this year’s crop of maize and then use the produce to help serve lunch to every child. The phonics programme, introduced by Mrs Jones last year is still in place and expanding to include the next class. Christopher, the head teacher, and Ben, the senior teacher, have also introduced a very successful Forest School. All of our objectives have been met. The ceremony to officially launch the food project has led to other local schools starting their own projects; Christopher has been able to talk at national level to other schools about the partnership with St. Andrew’s; as Christopher is retiring next year, a successor has been found who will continue with the partnership and the links with IcFEM, the Christian Mission are extremely strong and will ensure the future sustainability of the work, particularly with the very generous support offered by Mark Lea over the next five years.

We were all delighted to see the knitted Teddies in action – especially Mrs Jones! The youngest children have got their own teddies and can take them to and from school. The remaining teddies are used as teaching aids in the “Reception” classrooms. Children were learning to count with them and had also made houses out of maize for the children to use as homes for their teddies. We are all very grateful to all parents and families who took up their knitting needles and made this initiative such a great success.

I was delighted that my wife and Rosie Faulkner (grandparent to Luka in Class3) self-funded to join our party of nine to work with IcFEM to examine how the mission works with local communities to help transform lives. They spent a great deal of time with disadvantaged people, particularly widows, orphans and the elderly so that their expertise in this area could be shared with IcFEM. They are both determined to continue this work in whatever way they can help. The programme they followed complemented the partnership work with Bilibili as we explored different ways in which we could make children’s lives better.

It is important to stress, however, that this work is about communities supporting each other. It is not charity, but it is about sustainability and helping others to help themselves. We learned just as much about global issues as our Kenyan colleagues did. As Christopher stated, “This is the first time that black and white people have worked together harvesting crops for over fifty years.” Cultural harmony is one of the lessons that we know the children in both schools have understood.

We have brought back a wide range of photos and slides which we are already beginning to share with our children at St. Andrew’s. We are also hoping to hold a “Kenya” day in the New Year with an opportunity to invite parents to share in this exchange of knowledge and ideas about the cultures of our two countries.

Travel Plans

I am grateful to Julie Holmes and her team for ensuring the success of the Walking Bus day. We are still looking out for more volunteers to see if we can extend the Bus” to two days. If you are interested, please text the school. I am assured that Shropshire Homes will be off site by the end of this term.

I would also like to hold another “Walk to School” day on Wednesday, 27^th November

The Christmas Term is always very busy.

Details of Christmas services and PTFA events will be sent out next week.

 

Many thanks for your continued support.