BLOG NO 14 - 19TH MARCH 2015

BLOG NO. 14 – 19TH MARCH 2015

...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Phillippians 1 : 6

Hello all from a very hot and dusty Lukomera. No rain for months, although the rainy season is due to start 'any day now' apparently. Water is being restricted in the school bore hole as the water table is now very low, so lots of prayer needed for rain please.

In Activate recently we have been talking about God's plans for our future. There has been much talk at the school about the students who have done well in O and A Levels, a celebration of their achievements was held on Saturday and of course it is right that we celebrate. But what we have also been doing is to celebrate as well with those who may not have got top grades, some are new to the school and were just about to start mid term exams, reminding them to be confident that God has a plan for them as well.

Yes, even though it seems term has hardly started we are now in the middle of mid term exams (Uganda loves exams!) so we have also been giving some practical help about revising, trying some other ways rather than the one most of the students are used to – reading notes and cramming for hours - you can see how succesful that is from the photo below! 

Since we got back there has been such a lot happening it will take too long to tell you everything, so we will try and stick to a few lines and let the photos tell the story – always supposing we are able to attach any photos – always a challenge here in the land of half a G.

Maintenance work – started when we got back and was almost finished as term started.

Students – started to return over the first week of term. We now have 581 and counting.

Teacher training – is not made available at every school, and usually not free of charge, so these training days, taught by volunteers, were a real bonus for the teachers.

(1) term started with a teacher training day for the WTA teachers, presented by Elspeth.

(2) followed by a day about reading with Carol Willison, head of literacy at the International School in Kampala, this was attended by 60 local primary school teachers. Many of these schools do not have a library, so books and reading are a challenge. They were sent home with a bag of books for each school.

(3) training for the Senior Management Team, facilitated by Phillippa Chapman, a team building consultant, and included working as a team, being open and honest, empowering the rest of the staff and giving them the skills in which to do this.

Exam results – Charles' aim to raise the results of the whole school is a real challenge bearing in mind the class sizes. Even with streaming now in most of the larger classes which has reduced the sizes by half, there are still 65 in a class. Small for many schools in Uganda but still difficult to provide any one-to-one or small group work.

This work continues, but the good news from this year is that in O Levels 7 students gained a Division 1 (think A*) and many others appeared in the higher levels.

The boy achieving the highest grade was from a very poor family in the north of the country. During the last holidays his home, containing what little they had, was burnt to the ground leaving them with nothing. Despite that his mother has managed to raise the school fees by taking on extra work, and he is back to take Science A Level, the first time it has been offered in WTA, see below.

In A Level - one student gained a mark of 18/20 which made her one of the top students in Luwero district, she was mentioned in the 'top in the country' results and has been offered a government sponsored place to study law at Makerere university in Kampala.

She is a local day scholar (boarders are generally thought to get the best results), from a single parent family whose mother cleaned in The Rock to pay for her school fees.

In a school such as this, with students coming from such disadvantaged backgrounds, it is a joy to hear such stories of success and it was humbling when some of the students gave speeches at the Celebration Day crediting their success to God and his guidance and support as well as thanking their teachers.

A Level Science -the school had planned to start teaching A Level Chemistry and Biology in 2016, delayed until the results for O Level in those areas had improved. As the Division 1 students did well in Science WTA has decided to have a 'pilot', offering it this year just for 8 students with good results.

We have got the books and found the teachers, so this will be an exciting move for the school. The students in this group are also delighted as many of them thought they would have to go elsewhere to study science at A Level and they are pleased to be able to come back to WTA.

Plans for 2015 – many things being discussed, but at present priority is being given to 'fencing in' the girl's dormitories. Not as horrific as it sounds, in Ugandan culture a secondary school where boys and girls mix freely at school is unusual, and WTA are bowing to parental concern by ensuring the safety of the girls at night. Work will start shortly to provide an inner fence and gates around the dormitory and latrines so that the girls can be more easily protected during the night.

Library lessons and exam prep -Another 'new' for 2015 is library lessons. It has been recognised that boosting English for the students will have a knock-on effect for other subjects. All exams in Uganda are in English so any improvement will be of help, particularly as the exam board cite 'lack of English understanding' as one of the factors for students losing marks in all subjects. The English department are making some of their lessons 'library lessons', and we are delighted that we have also been asked to carry out some library lessons for S1 and S2, plus English/exam preparation/revision techniques for S4, all held in the library.

Early days yet, but there is certainly a real thirst for learning more English and also our aim is to help the students understand that the books in the library are for enjoyment as well as for text book use. Many of the students only visit the library to read their notes, so giving them books to read 'for fun' is a new concept.

Some of the teachers also only use the library for reading notes and research, so the 'library quiz' we did as part of the teacher training day was enjoyed and helped them to see what is available in the library. We have since done the same thing with the students.

Visitors -as well as hosting Jerry and Elspeth and Carol and Phillippa (our volunteer teacher trainers) we were delighted to welcome Nick Allen, chair of the Trustees of ServeDirect, who made a very last minute decision to come and visit and see for himself how the projects are progressing as it had been some years since he was here last.

And our second visitor was Percy, the 10 feet rock python. Jerry 'The Snake' Dugdale rescued him in the village (where he would probably have been killed) and promptly gave him our bathroom to live in until he was able to release him in a safe place (Ziwa rhino sanctuary) a few days later. Whilst Percy was staying he made a guest appearance at the school assembly, enabling Jerry to explain to the students and teachers some of the myths believed in Uganda about snakes (for example, they are not all poisonous). Unfortunately for Nick (who I am delighted to say was at the tail end) we also learnt a lesson about what snakes do when they are nervous, and Percy disgraced himself on stage (and on Nick's boots) to the amusement of the students.

Hadiga and Keiron - you may remember we talked about a young 14 year old who gave birth at the Rock with some difficulty, the baby stopped breathing twice on the way to hospital.

Annet at the Rock has kept in close contact with the girl, Hadiga, and her baby Felix (now renamed Keiron). Annet became very concerned that the baby was very malnourished, and felt that Hadiga had little knowledge of how to care for the baby, there being no female role model in the home.

She has persuaded Hadiga to come to the Rock regularly with the baby and Annet is now giving her training/counselling on making baby food, explaining the importance of regular feeding and generally acting as a mother figure to this young girl.

We saw Hadiga and Keiron this week and have urged her to keep up the contact with Annet (initially she was very wary of attending). The baby seems well, apart from his size, and seems keen to feed.

Boda ambulance -this incident highlighted the fact that ambulances are difficult to get, usually involving a long wait and had our/Jerry's car not been available mother and baby would have been sent to the hospital on a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) which is the norm. Thanks to the generosity of a donor we are in the process of taking delivery of a 'boda ambulance' that will be kept at the Rock and attached to the boda of a trustworthy driver should a trip to the hospital be necessary. Photos soon.

We had a day off last Thursday (no lessons during mid term exams) to stay at The Haven next to the Nile in Jinja, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and my birthday. It was so nice to be able to relax in such a peaceful location and watch the sea eagles.

The weekend has been busy, with the 'Celebration Day' on Saturday and 'Visitation Day' on Sunday when parents can come and visit their children. It also gives them the opportunity to pay the balance of the term's school fees, half are due at the start of term and the balance after 6 weeks. We spoke to some of the parents about their journey – some had come from Lira in the north, a 5 hour journey in a matatu, just to spend a few hours with their child before starting the 5 hour journey home.

For those students still 'owing' after Visitation Day it means being sent home this week to collect balances as soon as the exams are finished on Wednesday, so we are expecting a few unhappy faces today. It seems harsh, but as the school is non profit-making there is a fine balance between the school fees income and paying for food and teachers so chasing for the fees is unavoidable.

So please pray for the students returning home this week, that they make a safe and successful return, for Hadiga and Keiron, that they both thrive under the guidance of Annet, and give thanks for those students that are achieving so much, at all levels.

And – thank you so much for all the birthday wishes, both by email and on Facebook, feeling truly blessed.

Love

Sue and Stan

church - WTA style!

High scoring Ejuku Emmanuel (Div 1 O Level) with brother, Mum and Kato Patrick,

Hadiga and Felix (now Keiron)

first library lesson with S1

literacy day with the local primary school teachers - -telling the story!

Carol Willison supervises Tell us a story!

Madam Sarah from the Disabled Unit shows us how to 'pass the mango to someone you like'!

24 hours before the start of term - last minute painting.......

......and digging out the drainage pit - Muhammed loves digging - with onlookers!

.......replacing the classroom rules.......

'Rothwell the shadow' - supervising the work - everywhere you look.......

Madam Solome cleans the library before the books go back.....

sports equipment gets a coat of paint.......

and the oven gets mended - first day of term!

Nick Allen arrives - on the red carpet of course!

why cramming doesn't work!

Visitation Day - Educate business club students sell liquid soap they have made

parents arrive - these came from Lira - 5 hour journey on a matatu

these travelled overnight so brought their breakfast with them!

Percy the python appears in assembly

Percy the nervous python disgraces himself - so glad I had the middle!

Percy the python gets comfy in our bathroom

WTA teacher training day - library quiz

marking the library quiz

Stan and Jerry demonstrate 'pulling together' - or not

Charles talks about the history of WTA and the partnership with ServeDirect

group photo - WTA teacher training day

Celebration Day - Stan opens the proceedings with a few encouraging words

students enjoy the speeches and entertainment

traditional dancing - with English running shirts!

Engola Arnold aka DJ Change sings his latest song - check out the suit - he says he didn't use school fees money!

the lovely Ejuku Emmanuel gives an inspirational talk to the other students - telling them they can do it as well if they work hard and trust in the Lord

Charles and some of the teachers on the 'high table'

the lunch queue - they cooked for 600!

presenting a certificate and bag of goodies to our A Level top student Nalujja Juliet - looking very different out of uniform and with hair extensions!

Top students - Ejuku Emmanuel, Nalujja Juliet, Engola Arnold (from 2014) and Akaki Ronal who missed out in 2013!

After a busy weekend, lovely to sit and watch the sunset!