Connecting schools around the world
Earlier this month three team members (Maire, TJ and Adizah) from Yaarah School’s, visited Heartwood Small School in the village of Heartwood in West Sussex.
Yaarah Schools were invited by Lynne Fonieles a trustee of Heartwood Small School . Lynne thought the school would benefit from linking with schools that we work with in Ghana. Heartwood School is a very small school at Heartwood village. It has 16 children from ages 11-14 years of age. It is situated in a beautiful park ,which forms part of a National Park in West Sussex. The children are currently being taught a in classroom that is also used as a scout hut, yet hope to build their own school in the near future.
From Waterloo it took about an hour to get to Petersfield, where we were met by Lynne, who drove us through many country lanes to the picturesque village of Heartwood to the school. We were warmly received by the children and teachers. That morning the children had a lesson on Ghanaian culture, geography and history; so had high expectations and many interesting questions.
After a short meeting of introduction with the Lynne and Loic (another teacher at the school), it was soon time for lunch! We had a tasty vegetarian lunch with the children and teachers, which made us, remember our own enjoyable school days. During the lunch the teachers and the children had time to chat with us informally and find out more about us.
After lunch the there was a slight technology blip, which meant our presentation slides had to wait. Quickly the Loic and Adizah came up with plan B, while we waited for a replacement laptop. The class was divided into two groups, Maire showed the children the pictures of the Yaarah School project and Adizah used her laptop to explain more about our history and the many exciting ways we raise money in the UK, from fashion/music events to quiz nights.
In the end presentation went well and we were able to talk more with the children about Yaarah Schools work and what we are trying to achieve. The question and answer session was great fun and the children had many interesting questions and ideas. TJ was on hand to provide answers for questions on Ghanaian history and geography. The children learnt about the conditions in the Adaklu Aziedukope primary school, the lack of education materials and lack of basic sanitation – such as a toilet. We even talked about what solutions they thought may work best. One idea was to design a composted toilet for Yaarah Schools to use in it project after the classrooms were built. They had ideas on how they would fundraise for Yaarah Schools and wanted to visit Ghana to see the project for themselves. They also wanted to learn something from the children in Ghana and thought a great way may be through a pen pals scheme.
We finally ended the day by talking through how the two schools could work together to benefit classrooms on both sides of the world. Just as we were about to wrap up ,we were presented with a gift for the children of Adaklu Aziedukope primary school. Maire and the team are currently on our Spring 2011 trip and will deliver the presents, while sharing the news about our amazing visit to Hartwood Small School.
