On Friday, Liss pupils in Yr 4 took part in an international symposium, a meeting between pupils in different countries through a video conference on Microsoft Teams. Working with students from Chichester University, our pupils prepared a Powerpoint presentation about Liss and what it was like to attend school in Liss. Also taking part were two other UK schools, a school in Poland, a school in Tenerife and two schools in Switzerland: one French speaking and one German speaking.
It was fascinating to watch the pupils learn about each other and to acknowledge the similarities and differences between them. Lots of Liss pupils would now like to attend school in Tenerife because it is warm, sunny and school ends at 12.30pm each day. However, there are no half terms!
We hope that one day in the not so distant future, that Liss pupils and Kafuro pupils will be able to have their own meeting to discuss the similarities and differences in their lives.
Many thanks to the student teachers from Chichester University for facilitating such a rewarding event. We hope that this is the first of many meetings with schools all over the world. The presentations from schools are below along with some photos.
While the children at Liss are experiencing autumn and weather that is suddenly getting colder, at Kafuro the weather is hot and there is lots of work taking place with the conservation club.
Under the tutelage of Julius Mumbere, who runs the conservation club, the pupils have planted 40 new trees at school, pruned the existing trees and taken 449 trees into the community to be planted at their homes.
Children in Liss may be surprised to know that in Kafuro, the pupils are responsible for maintaining the school compound and, on several occasions, Mr Stanley has seen pupils cutting the grass or cleaning classrooms.
Many thanks to the pupils at Liss Junior School who have donated a watering can so that the conservation club can water seedlings more easily.
At Liss, we hope for Year 5 pupils to do some tree planting in the spring.
Seedlings with a barrier to (hopefully) stop goats from eating them.Pupils clearing the compound ready for seedlings to be planted.Pupils pruning the trees.Pruned treesChildren with seedlings ready to go out into th e community.The new watering can donated by Liss pupilsThe new watering can in action.Protecting trees with a barrier made from plastic bottles.Planting a seedling
As part of the Yr 6 DT project on Ugandan food, Liss Yr 6 pupils were tasked with making rolex (rolled eggs), a Ugandan street food in which a filled omelette is rolled in a chapatti. The pupils’ brief was as follows:
To celebrate the link between Liss and Kafuro, you have been tasked with creating a rolex using fusion ingredients i.e. the best ingredients from both the UK and Uganda.
You must create a rolex (and side salad) which looks good, tastes great and covers the major food groups.
Before the pupils made their rolex, they had to do some research on popular Ugandan food to get an idea of the staples of everyday life. Next, they tasted and rated a selection of ingredients such as muchomo (grilled meat), chapattis, roast and sweet potato, salad, Katchembali (a special salad with tomato, peppers and chilli) and plantain chips.
After the food tasting, the Liss pupils formed groups to design their rolexes and accompanying salads or side dishes. They took on board the idea of fusion food with some groups opting for ingredients such as bacon and sausage while other groups were more exotic with ingredients such as mango.
The next task was to actually make their dishes. Two groups at a time worked with Mr Stanley who showed them how to make a chapatti and how to cut and grate ingredients properly. Each group then completed their tasty dishes as seen below.
Finally, after eating their rolexes, each group had to complete an evaluation form. It is safe to say that, after reading the evaluations, the Liss pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience and many intend to make rolexes at home. It’s also worth mentioning that when Mr Mukama saw photos of the rolexes, his comment was that they had made him salivate. High praise indeed!
Yesterday, Sunday 1st February, the building work at Kafuro was completed with the final render applied to the veranda. This means that the pupils will be able to return to school to safe classrooms thanks to the fundraising efforts of Liss pupils.
Mr Mukama sent photos of the last stages of the work.
It is the middle of the school holidays at Kafuro (they don’t return until early February) but the site has been really busy as work has begun to strengthen the classroom walls of the P1 & 2 block. At the beginning of January, Mr Stanley sent out 3,000,000UGX raised by Liss pupils so that work could get underway. Within a week, Mr Mukama has organised a team to do the work and set up meetings to plan the building schedule. Work began this Monday to remove the cracked wall, underpin the roof and begin building a replacement wall before applying render and working on a new veranda.
Mr Mukama has already started sending photos through to show some of the rapid progress in the building schedule. He will continue to do this on a regular basis until completion. Here in Liss, we are very grateful that our friends in Uganda will be returning to school in a safe classroom.
Over the first three weeks of this term Liss pupils have focused on wants and needs.
We started our study by being placed into table groups. Each group was then given the outline of a child before being asked to give their child a name. We named our children Stevington, Anakin, Robin, Joel, Jim and Terry, each group was allowed 10 minutes to write on post – its as many things that the child would need in order to grow up happy and healthy. At this point we were asked to stop.
The next task we were given was to start removing post – its that we felt were the least important. Initially, this was to leave only the twenty most important post – its then removing five at a time until we were left with the five post -its that we felt were most important.
Among the most important considerations we came up with was love, family, a balanced diet, friends, water and shelter.
Mr Stanley then gave the class 20 wants and needs cards and the same type of exercise was repeated. We worked together to get down to the five most important cards to us by removing 5 cards at a time.
As we gained more understanding of some of the statements, the discussions became a bit more heated fortunately stopping short of full – blown arguments. We knew that as we had to reduce the amount of cards then the choices would become more difficult. What also became clear was that we were making a distinction between wants and needs:
Needs – the things that are absolutely necessary for all children to have or be able to do to live a happy and healthy life
Wants – the things that are nice to have but are not necessary for a full life.
When each group shared their final 5 cards there were some similarities between what had originally selected for their child with the post – its, but there was also some differences. Nutritious food, shelter, medical care and clean water were the most popular, but there were some changes to what we considered most important. Education, the freedom from discrimination, and protection from abuse and neglect were all very important.
When we discussed why our results were very similar, we came to the conclusion that we are all products of the same environment. We understand that our most basic needs are the same, but differed sometimes on one particular need
Stevington
Robin
Anakin
Joel
Terry
Jim
Nutritious food
Nutritious food
Clean water
Nutritious food
Shelter
Nutritious food
Clean water
Clean water
Nutritious food
Clean water
Nutritious food
Clean water
Education
Shelter
Medical care
Medical care
Clean water
Shelter
Shelter
Clean air
Shelter
Protection from abuse & neglect
Education
Medical care
Medical care
Medical care
Education
Shelter
Medical care
Protection from discrimination
We then compared what our pupils had shared with that of Kafuro pupils.
Kafuro Pupils
Gp 1
Gp 2
Gp 3
Gp 4
Gp 5
Gp 6
Gp 7
Clean air
Clean air
Clean air
Clean air
Clean air
Nutritious food
Nutritious food
Nutritious food
Clean water
Nutritious food
Nutritious food
Nutritious food
Clean water
Clean air
Clean water
Nutritious food
Clean water
Clean water
Protection from abuse & neglect
Clean air
Clean water
Education
Protection from abuse & neglect
Decent shelter
Education
Medical care
Protection from discrimination
Medical care
Medical care
Education
Education
Medical care
Clean water
Decent shelter
Protection from abuse & neglect
We had a good deal in common in that Kafuro pupils felt that medical care, nutritious food and clean water were really important. Where there was a difference was that Ugandan children valued clean air really highly probably because there is so little pollution in Kafuro. There was also a greater focus on education. For the children in Kafuro, education is the key to a career in anything other than agriculture and gets them out of the village. Shelter doesn’t seem so important to the Kafuro pupils as they live in a much warmer climate. This backs up our conclusion that we are products of our environment as the environment in Kafuro is slightly different to ours.
Mr Stanley was contacted this morning by Mr Mukama to share the news that the installation of electricity has been completed yesterday. It is safe to say that all of the staff and pupils at Kafuro are extremely grateful for the support from Liss pupils. Although it is school holidays in Kafuro, some of the pupils visited the school yesterday and wrote a letter to the Liss pupils, one of which is published below. Mr Mukama also filmed the lights being used for the first time at the school with a message for the pupils at Liss. This will be shown at an assembly at Liss Junior School.
We are looking forward to hearing about the difference that the installation will make to pupils over a period of time.
Having had a good discussion with his pupils, Mr Mukama produced some very detailed answers for the first five questions from Liss pupils. This week all of the questions come from Willow class who asked the following:
What is your favourite word in Rukiga? (the local Ugandan language)
The best Rukiga word is KYO YAMAAWE. Meaning exclamation mark !
How many people live in Kafuro?
We have a mix of people in Kafuro: school children and adults; business people and farmers. The total number of children at the school is approximately 340
Who cleans the school?
During school time , we clean the school compound ourselves.The classes as well are cleaned by learners themselves. The latrines are always dirty and the teachers on duty have a rosta to clean according to classes: Class seven to class two Monday to Friday
The office and the staffroom are cleaned by prefects.
During holidays, the school becomes very bushy. We use hired labour to slash the compound and do some trimming. We have now got a problem of bats around and under every roof. During class time they disrupt lessons.
What sports are played at Kafuro?
Physical education is in class time game. Both cultural and English or local songs are sung as the children carry out exercises.
Football, netball and running are the most popular sports. We are currently preparing for football and netball fixtures against another local school.
What do children drink at school?
They drink water and a type of fermented porridge with yeast.
Our thanks to Mr Mukama and the pupils who took the time to answer our questions.
Year 3 and Year 2 had a proper Ugandan experience yesterday when they were visited by Ronnie Musabe, the Twinning Project’s ‘man on the ground’ in Uganda.
Ronnie spent the morning with Year 3 reviewing their topic on changing Communities. He was able to answer the children’s questions on the relationship between the villages surrounding Queen Elizabeth National Park and the park rangers, particularly with regards to villagers encroaching on park land to plant crops.
In the afternoon, Ronnie visited Year 2 who have just begun their topic on Uganda. Again, he had many questions to answer and said afterwards that he could’ve been at the school for a week and not managed to answer them all. One of the activities Ronnie carried out with both year groups was to go through the Uganda Boxes that the Twinning Project have collated over the years. The children were able to see some traditional Ugandan toys, instruments and clothing as well as well as more modern materials.
This was a highly successful day from which the children obviously benefitted enormously. Ronnie was incredibly impressed, not only with the children’s maturity, but also with the quality of initial and follow – up questions that the children came up with. He told Mr Stanley that many of the tourists who come to Uganda come nowhere near to matching the children in terms of curiosity.
Everyoneat the Liss Federation would like to thank Ronnie for spending the day with us. When Ronnie returns to Uganda during half term, he will be taking some money with him in order to enable Kafuro to reopen lines of communication with Liss and also some special varieties of tomato seeds for the children to grow at Kafuro Primary School. For those readers of the blog who don’t know, Kafuro is famous throughout Uganda for the quality of its tomatoes, so we think the new varieties will grow really well. We hope to show you photos of the tomatoes later this year.
Readers of the blog will have noticed that it’s been a long time since there was any sort of update from our twinned school, Kafuro Primary School. To recap, the Covid pandemic meant that the last reciprocal visit had to be cancelled although some work was carried out at both schools.
Since then, the prospects for another reciprocal visit has become minimal. The British Council (which has had its funding slashed) is no longer offering funding through Connecting Classrooms for reciprocal visits, and the replacement Turing Scheme doesn’t work in the same way. Therefore, any chance of face to face contact is remote at the moment .
However, we now have some up to date news on what is happening at Kafuro Primary School. Ronnie Musabe (who is the twinning project’s man on the ground in Uganda) visited Kafuro last month and was able to spend some time at the school.
Firstly, the school has a new headteacher. Mr. Stephen Thembo (the last Ugandan headteacher to visit Liss) has been transferred to a school in Katerera. This is pretty common in Uganda – most headteachers spend 3 – 4 years at a school before they are moved onto a new school. The new Headteacher is Mr. Jackson Twinamatsiko.
From the photos received from Kafuro (below) and the information Ronnie has already passed on, Kafuro is facing a number of challenges. Firstly, although the school population has remained the same since the pandemic, there has been quite a shift in numbers in each year group. P1 (which is roughly equivalent to Yr R/1) has 145 pupils. They are likely to be in two classrooms with totally inadequate seating! P7 (which is equivalent to Yr 6) has only 16 pupils.
There are now big issues with water coming into the school. Readers of the blog will remember that during Mr Stanley’s last visit to Uganda, he was at Kafuro Primary School when running water was turned on at the school – Liss pupils had funded the cost of the pipeline to the nearest lake and Kafuro pupils and parents had dug the pipeline to the water source. Apparently, although the pipeline is still secure, the source of water appears to have dried up or receded. To make matters worse, the massive (2000 litre) water tank at the school has perished so there is now no water source at the school. This means that children will have to fill jerry cans of water at the nearest crater lake.
Other issues that are facing the school is that although the solar panels (which Liss pupils raised the funds for installing) still work, the batteries to store the energy created are no longer working. These will need replacing. There are also issues with some of the windows no longer keeping rain out of the classrooms.
For all the negative news that has come before, there are also some positives. The last major fundraising that Liss pupils provided for Kafuro was in getting windows and shutters for the staff blocks which was under construction at the time. The staff block is now complete and several of the teachers (including Mr Twinamatsiko) live there during the week. Another area where Liss pupils had helped in the past had been to pay for the draining and upgrade of some of the school latrines. The Ugandan government has now built a brand new latrine block which will help to improve sanitation further at the school. Kafuro also continues to innovate with the construction of a bin for collecting rubbish made entirely out of recyclable materials.
Our immediate priority is to re-establish communication with Kafuro on a consistent basis. For many years the film club at Liss has raised money from selling crisps at screenings and Mr Stanley will be sending out some funds to allow Mr Twinamatsiko to communicate regularly with him. The plan is to identify some projects that both schools can work towards, and see if there are things we can do to help.
One final piece of really good news is that Ronnie Musabe is in the UK for the next three weeks and will be visiting the Liss Federation next Thursday. He will be working with Yr 2 and Yr 3 who have learning about Uganda in their geography curriculum.
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