As we come to the middle of 2023, we are happy to report that our second year of opening is going marvellously. We now have 133 learners across 7 age groups, 40 more than last year.
There are fifteen newbies in our youngest year group, the three-year-olds, who now feel very much at home, after just a couple of escape attempts to visit siblings in other classes during their first week with us.
In addition to our regular scholastic, artistic, and sporting activities, we have a few exciting changes to announce!
Parent Training
Over the holidays, we conducted a training session requested by parent council, which was very well attended. We talked to them about developing a growth mindset and encouraging curiosity in our kids, as well as sharing some of our methods for teaching phonics and handwriting and the representations we use in maths lessons that aren’t often used in Ugandan schools.
Drop Everything And Read
On April 12th we held our first ever D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) day. Parents joined us for a range of fun literacy related activities: silent reading, buddy reading, storytelling, a reading aloud competition and spelling competitions by different classes. It was a wonderful day enjoyed by all!
Vocational skills
We’ve introduced vocational skills for our two oldest year groups, ranging from farming studies at the new farm, with a focus on sustainable practices and teaching our youngsters how to grow nutritious greens such as broccoli and nakati, to carpentry, in which our learners are making rabbit hutches for the farm, to crafting items such as flip-flops using sustainable materials.
Conservation Site Teaching Circle
Gosta, our talented stone-mason, has been hard at work creating a teaching circle on our 20 acre conservation site, so that learners can be taught the wonders of the local flora and fauna right in the middle of their richly diverse habitat. The circle, made from local stone, is surrounded by many hundreds of different species of trees, shrubs, flowers, insects, birds, reptiles and amphibians. We are so excited to start having lessons there once the path to it is completed, including but not limited to our weekly ‘eco-debates outdoors’ lessons.
Swimming
We’ve begun swimming lessons, each class going twice a term. The children love it and are learning an important life skill at the same time.
