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ACE decided to bring two Ugandan educationalists here to look at school practice in the UK. They explored various administrative areas as well as teaching. These included school management and classroom management, as well as storage of materials and use of resources. They have selected from what they saw, and, with the help of teachers here, they have put together workshops to take back to Uganda in order to train other heads and teachers in ACE schools. This should lead to better use and care of resources, better classroom organisation and teaching, happier teachers and children, and a higher standard of education. Whilst they were In Cornwall, some of the schools and other organisations which have supported ACE met them and got feedback as to how their hard work has helped our schools in Uganda. Hopefully this will encourage more fundraising. They arrived
in England on Monday 27th September and were here for three weeks.
Augustine
(left) and William William Balibutsa is a School Inspector for the Kisoro region of Uganda and part of his remit is to oversee the primary schools which ACE supports in the area. We consult with him regularly about the projects we undertake and have always benefited from his advice and assistance. Augustine Mbonigaba was headteacher of the primary school we support at Mukibugu for many years. Since he retired from that position he has become a director of St. Allen's School in Kisoro. He is very experienced and dependable and, as he is no longer teaching, he will be able to organise the seminars for teachers at the ACE schools on his return to Uganda. They had a busy programme whilst they were here. They were based at St. Hilary School for the first half of their visit and also visited other local schools. With Angela, they attended meetings of Penzance Rotary Club, Mount's Bay Rotary Club, Praze WI and Mount's Bay Missions. They had a meeting with the ACE trustees, discussing the way forward for ACE's projects, and they assisted at the collections for ACE at Morrisons supermarket. On their days off we showed them a bit of Cornwall. Several organisations and individuals gave financial support and sponsorshop to enable this visit to take place. ACE is particularly grateful to Cornwall Branch of the National Union of Teachers, Penzance Rotary Club, Mount's Bay Rotary Club, Penzance Lions Club and Truro College Student Association, and also to Andy Nineham, Thomas Gunkel and Roger Drew. |
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Visit to the Mayor of Penzance
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William and Augustine, pictured with the Mayor of Penzance, Councillor Jan Ruhrmund, with ACE Chairman, Angela Peake, and Councillor Phil Rendle They were welcomed to Penzance by the mayor and several of the members of Penzance Town Council. |
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In
the Mayor's Parlour Augustine got to try on the Mayor's formal regalia
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and William tried an historic outfit too.
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Meeting Our MP and Vicar
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They met our local MP, Andrew George ..... | |
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..... and local vicar, Tim Hawkins ..... | |
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and they attended services at Gulval Church.
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School Visits
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For the first part of their stay, Augustine and William were based at St. Hilary Primary School.....
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..... and they were presented with some gifts on their final day there. |
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| This picture shows William with some of the pupils in St. Hilary Church for a rehearsal of the school harvest festival. |
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William
presented a video of the schools in Uganda at St. Erth School.
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Here
is Augustine with pupils at St. Erth.
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At Mount's Bay School they enjoyed lunch in the school canteen. During the visit the school presented a cheque for £1,298 to ACE funds. |
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Out and About
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At
the weekends they enjoyed some free time and have been taken out.
One of their first trips was to the Minack Theatre.
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Augustine got his first ever close view of the sea. |
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They
visited some of Cornwall's oldest attractions .....
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as well as some newer ones.
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They felt at home in the steamy Tropical Biome at The Eden Project. |
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They
climbed to the top of Trencrom Hill. They were lucky to be there
on a beautifully clear day when they could see Trevose Head, St.
Agnes Beacon and Godrevy to the north .....
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right around to Penzance, St. Michael's Mount and the Lizard to
the south.
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They
visited the length of St. Ives Bay, starting at St. Ives .....
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..... and going as far as Godrevy ...... |
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..... where they saw some animals that they had never seen before. |
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They
helped with a collection for ACE at Morrison's supermarket.
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They have also been entertained in the homes of various ACE supporters. Here Augustine is with Judith and Charlotte Nicholls. Judith and Charlotte have both visited the schools in Uganda. |
First Teachers' Workshop Takes Place in Kisoro
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Following their visit to Cornwall, Augustine and William have held the first seminar for teachers and headteachers of the ACE primary schools. It was held on Saturday 19th February 2011 in Kisoro Town Council Hall and was attended by 65 teachers and 7 headteachers. This was over 75% attendance. Teachers of Nyarusunzu school did not attend because of the long distance of travel. William and Augustine have arranged to go there themselves soon and hold a similar workshop for them. |
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William reported - The teachers were told about the history of ACE's involvement and they discussed how the schools had benefited from the charity in detail, school by school. To most of the teachers, this was new information. They were also informed of our visit to the UK and also told how funds to help our schools are raised. All this was intended to show the teachers that some people in the UK are working very hard to help educate our children and a lot has been achieved. What we must now do is to continue to improve on our academic performance standards. We made a baseline assessment. The teachers outlined the problems each school had, ranging from poor attendance of both teachers and pupils to lack of sufficient instructional and resource management, not excluding poor assessment management of pupils' learning. |
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We discussed activities to improve on our standards. Out of the list of many gaps identified, it was agreed that they be prioritised as follows - 1. Management of registers of pupils by marking them daily, without missing, and making follow up of the children who absent themselves regularly. 2. Having daily informal morning staff meetings to clear off any eventualities that can lead to the children missing lessons. 3. Setting standards in every school that will check proper utilisation of instructional and resource management. 4. Setting a level of attainment and emphasising the management of homework and other remedial instructions. |
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It was agreed that all this should start immediately. More would be done after harmonising the above. |
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The Way Forward The teachers agreed -
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In the final remarks on behalf of the teachers, the headmaster of Gitenderi Primary School expressed the importance of the workshop and requested this to be happening periodically until ACE schools pick up a culture where good standards can be sustained. Otherwise, on my behalf as an Inspector of schools, I got an opportunity to express to them what is expected of them. |
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The cost of the workshop was provided by ACE, using the remaining money that had been donated for William and Augustine's visit to Cornwall. The trustees feel that this has been an exercise which will greatly benefit the schools. We are very grateful to the organisations and individuals who donated funds to make it possible. |