The main steel frame is up
Author: admin
RIP our first original mud toilet block.
Thank you for 15 years’ faithful service.
At the end of the first week of work, we’d demolished all our old toilets and cleared the site.
We’re crushing the blocks to use as hardcore, and saving everything we can (roofing sheets, windows, doors, frames, etc) for future projects. We’re already using some of the material to build a much needed extra storage shed.
Work has started!
We’ve erected fencing around the construction site to keep the children out!
After the project, we’ll reuse the corrugated iron and gum poles to build pens and shelters for the goats and hens we plan to keep as part of our agriculture lessons.
New Kitchen
Thanks to the generosity of some overseas friends, local builders erected a new school kitchen during the closure. We’ll use this to provide every pupil with a free daily hot meal.
Our nation is going through a hard time at the moment, especially with high inflation and low rainfall, so we know that providing a nutritious daily meal will by a big help.
Thank you to Simba Milling for donating the grain for the daily meals… We’ll use much of the produce we grow in the school working garden for the meals too.
Busy in closure
The staff all worked throughout the Covid 19 closure period. We seized the opportunity to spend 4 hours a day studying an on-line teacher development course run by the UK Open University. Its ‘Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa’ (TESSA) department provided us with dedicated materials for primary and secondary teachers in Zambia, and we have all benefited greatly from the course.
If this wasn’t enough, we also ‘rolled up our sleeves’ and cleared the old rusted, broken and derelict playground equipment. It was all encased in concrete so it was a hard job! Now the area is completely safe, and we’ve got to start saving for some new playground swings, slides and seesaws for our youngest pupils.
Reading to the community
Every term, all the pupils in Grades 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 & 11 spend one whole day taking books into the local community, and reading stories to the children whose parents can’t afford to send them to school. Obviously, our pupils don’t all do this on the same day!
This is always a wonderful occasion— especially for those children who never otherwise see a book. In Term One, Grades 5, 8 & 10 did this on Valentine’s Day, and also gave everyone a rose as well.
If only we had the funds to provide all these children with a free bursary place!
