Four Hull schools have arrived back in the UK after an exciting visit to meet their partner schools in Freetown.
Staff from Winifred Holtby Secondary, Dorchester Primary, Sutton Park Primary and St Richard’s Primary were funded through the DfID British Council Global Schools Partnerships to develop partnerships with Albert Academy, Cathedral Primary, Conforti Community Primary and Children in Crisis Primary.
The partnerships have been developed by journalist Matt Stephenson, who first visited Freetown when working in collaboration with Hull based media collective Cafesociety.org.
“After listening to children and young people in Freetown and Hull, in getting the opportunity to experience something of their lives, I felt that developing educational links was possibly the most sustainable way of bringing long-term benefits to children in both cities. There is a huge amount that we can all learn from each other.” explained Matt.
It was an event-filled visit: a tropical storm on the ferry from Lunghi airport provided the visitors with an exciting introduction to life in Sierra Leone.
Other highlights included an appearance and feature about the visit on national TV news, meeting the Minister of Education, a trip up-country to Makeni, a visit to church, a beach barbecue and football at Kent, singing Krio hymns in the poda-poda, shopping at the Big Market and much more.
But it was the school visits which will make the most lasting impressions. All of the UK guests were moved an inspired by meeting the staff and teachers in their partner schools. “We had the most amazing welcome everywhere we went.” explained Dorchester Primary head-teacher Sue Liddle. “There were gifts, dancing and many moments when we got to speak to pupils and even visit their homes. But I think the most striking thing was the difficult conditions that everyone has to endure - derelict buildings, lack of power, no resources or books… it makes you wonder how people manage to teach or learn, and also makes you realise how much we have in the UK.”
This visit to Freetown is just the first stage of a newly developing programme of Hull schools linking with partners in Freetown. A visit to Hull by the freetown partners will take place next March, and following that another seven or eight schools in Hull are hoping to join the programme.
For more information email: matt@hullman.karoo.co.uk
Entries (RSS)