Newsletter February 2006

Nine people formed the team that visited Farato at the end of 2005. Tony and Karen went, of course, together with Beryl and Bert Boxall and Ben Clifton who returned for the second time. In addition, four students joined the team for their first experience of Africa. Suzanne Keeler, Gabby Spicer, Nicky Vella-Burrows and Orla Isaacson gained an enormous range of experiences and were keen to make the most of every opportunity they had to learn about Gambian village life.

For all of us the welcome on our arrival in Farato was overwhelming. Veterans to the village would have been used to the group of villagers who meet us at our compound and fete us with drumming, dancing and smiles. But none of us were prepared for the VIP treatment that we received this time: the whole village including the school children were gathered on the main road ready to escort us down the long track to our compound. We were virtually carried along the way by the enthusiastic chanting, cries of greeting and throngs of villagers, drummers and singers. It was an exhilarating and humbling experience.

The tasks that we had set ourselves for this fortnight included painting murals on the outside wall of the school, running a 2-day teachers’ workshop, working visiting nursery schools, building equipment for the school, planning the garden and enabling the new building plans to be put out to tender.

Carole Robson, from Laddingford, had designed a logo in consultation with Saffie the Headmistress that reflected the bond between Yalding and Farato and the 4 girls set to work creating this on one of the outside wall panels. They were soon joined by a crowd of onlookers – many admirers, too! – and one local artist, Lamin, who volunteered to create the other two panels. His designs included the Gambian coat of arms plus the Union Jack and a message to school children about punctuality.

Following on from the previous workshops in April, 2005 and December, 2004 we invited a new group of teachers from 6 surrounding Nursery Schools to attend a 2-day workshop. These workshops are designed and planned in conjunction with the Education Department of Gambia College and in consultation with the Head of Department and the Head of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme. It is through him that local Nursery schools are identified as benefiting from support. Beryl and Karen visited these schools prior to the workshop in order to assess their strengths and needs. At the beginning of the workshop, the teachers from Yalding School, Farato each gave a demonstration lesson with the children present and some of the visiting teachers were invited to present their ideas, too. Increasingly it is becoming our aim to enable Gambian teachers to train and support each other. In addition Beryl and Karen took themes to introduce to the teachers and provided many practical sessions to put ideas into practice. The emphasis was particularly upon making games and teaching aids out of local resources as GamBLE cannot guarantee to supply teachers and schools with materials from the UK.

Not only is the feedback about these workshops extremely positive, but on visiting the schools that took part in previous workshops and, most importantly, form observing the teachers at Yalding School, Farato, we can clearly see that many teachers are accepting the new ideas and putting them into practice in an imaginative and confident way. Karen visited the Gambian College in July, 2005 and helped to run a week of workshops for the tutors and lecturers on the ECD course. As a result, new ideas and approaches (as directed by the Gambian government), which involve a more creative and topic-based approach to learning and the curriculum, are reaching the trainee teachers. Karen hopes to return in April to run further workshops for the college staff and, thereby, prepare them for future training courses in August.

Bert Boxall worked hard with the school caretaker, Ebrima, to provide new equipment for the pupils. The swings needed repairing because termites had eaten through the wooden base, but local knowledge that old engine oil acts as a deterrent, was put to good use and a new pair of swings came into action. In addition, Bert provided football goals, complete with net and they were initiated formally on the last morning by a match between GamBLE members and Yalding school staff. GamBLE were victorious at 5-3 and Saffie (Headmistress) survived her first appearance as referee.

Ben spent many hours in the garden – which has grown incredibly since its beginnings a year ago. He has created a bed for each class and given them each an individual lesson on care and maintenance. The idea is that the teachers and pupils will be motivated to grow produce to sell at the market. Quite incredibly, there are bananas and papayas on the trees that were planted less than a year ago. Yalding Garden Society have very generously decided to mark their 50^th anniversary by planting bougainvillea along the inside wall of the entire school. This will not only look really beautiful but its vicious thorns act as a deterrent to anyone that is tempted to climb the wall to harvest from the garden! Ben worked with Master Hobart, a villager who has a keen interest in horticulture. Together they have bought sufficient plants to keep in a nursery area of the garden until the rains come in June.

Plans for the new Primary School (Lower Basic, for 8-13 year olds) are complete and have been put out to tender via the Gambian newspaper, "The Observer". Two Yalding citizens have been instrumental in moving the project this far: Derek Hudson (architect) has designed the 2-storey, 6-classroom block in consultation with the Gambian planning department and Bert Boxall (engineer) has been involved in working in detail with Gambian builders and authorities to effect bids. We wait now for those bids to be received and the appropriate builder to be chosen by the school’s Board of Directors and the Trustees. As far as we know, the whole project will cost over £42,000 so this is obviously a MASSIVE commitment. The first phase – 2 classrooms – itself will cost nearly £15,000. It is essential that we build these classrooms before the end of the academic year otherwise we will not have sufficient accommodation for the pupils in the current Grade 1 or the new intake in September, 2006. Already we have a new Grade 1 class that is presently housed in the Nursery School while Nursery One, the youngest children, are taught outside. When the rains come in June, this year, those children need to go back into the Nursery and the Grade 1 children into their new classroom. If two new classrooms are built, then the new Grade 1 in September will have accommodation. By then there will be well over 200 children on the site creating pressure on water supplies and toilets. The plan is, therefore, to spend £5,000 on a solar pump for the well that will provide a tank of water, rather than the current practice of pulling a small bucket up from a depth of 18 metres. It also means a tap can be sited by the toilets that will encourage the children to wash their hands in clean water.

It is clear that as we move into the new arena of upgrading Yalding School to a Lower Basic, or Primary School, that we are committing GamBLE to an enormous project. The cost of the building itself will be a huge amount of money to raise. Alongside this will be the increased staffing costs (and now that we are a registered Primary school, we are bound to pay 10% of the salaries in Social Security); the infrastructure of extra toilets, kitchen, store room, library and a second Headteacher’s office. There is no question that this vision will provide an excellent education for the children of Farato. Already our input has improved teaching standards considerably and families are literally queuing up to send their children to Yalding School. As we work in partnership with the Gambian education Department it is not unrealistic to believe that, just as Yalding Primary School UK has recently been judged one of the best primary schools in the country, so the teaching standards at its counterpart in Farato can be a beacon to all Gambian schools! We now have a very strong Board of Directors in Farato who give a lot of time and expertise to ensuring that the school runs smoothly and to a high standard. Our new Grade 1 Primary teacher, Ansumana Ceesay, who was appointed by Karen and the Board in July, is proving to be an exceptionally hard working and intelligent teacher. So results over the past 5 years are our encouragement to move forward with this new phase. However, we need increased support and, not to put too fine a point upon it, MONEY! Regular income through sponsorship is vital. In this way we can plan ahead and give our teachers the reassurance that there are career prospects for them. By so doing we will attract the best teachers to the school and our pupils will emerge at the age of 13 with a useful education behind them and, we hope, improved prospects for their working future.

• By holding coffee mornings or soup lunches
• Inviting the craft stall to a function
• Organising a function
• Doing a sponsored activity
• Contacting the local school or church to partner us