Recently UHST has been helping Isaac Newton School to smarten up the school site for the new intake of students.

A gate house is nearing completion. This is the place where visitors will be welcomed to the school. It has a room for the bursar and for the cashier, and parents and guardians will be able to pop in to pay school fee instalments, as well as to make general enquiries.

In 2015 the school had a problem during storms, when water rushed down the hillside and deposited water and mud in the classrooms. To prevent this from happening in future a wall has been built and drainage channels dug to lead the water away from the school buildings. This has been a major job, which has required a large amount of earth moving.

At the same time the contractors have improved the main roadway into the school and constructed all-weather paths between the classrooms and dormitories.

Following the excellent examination results, published in January, the school has had a healthy recruitment taking 74 new students into Senior 1 and 32 students into Senior 5 (the Lower 6th of A-level).

Already the new students are hard at work. The picture left shows the new Senior 5 Chemistry Students carrying out a Red-ox titration ( a titration between acidified Potassium Manganate (VII) and Oxalic acid). Of the 32 students in Senior 5, 11 students have opted for Chemistry and many more are taking sciences with combinations such as: Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Physics, Economics and Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics etc.

Last week Carl Blackburn, the new CEO of IHEU visited the school. The picture right shows him sitting with the school’s headteacher surrounded by new first year students.

A Humanist Volunteers Association has been established at the school. This allows students to go out to do good works in the neighbourhood, such as clearing the compounds of elderly people living on their own and environmental improvements. The picture on the left shows the sign for the Humanist Volunteers.

Below is the school calendar, which displays proudly the school’s Humanist motto “To Reason not to Believe”.

The boys football team at Mustard Seed School has emerged as the district champions.

The trophy is now proudly displayed in the school office.

The success was covered in the local newspapers and on local radio.

The team has now been invited to participate in the regional football competitions, which are being held in neighbouring Mayuge district for a week from the 9th April. Participating in such events is costly but they bring good publicity for the school and they are a great confidence and team-building experience for the students involved. UHST has decided to help them out with the costs of travel and subsistence to enable the boys to take part in the regional finals.

The Uganda O-level results came out on Friday and the performance of the Humanist schools was remarkable.

Although individual grades are given by subject. O-level is a group certificate in Uganda so the important grade is the aggregate over 7 subjects including Sciences, Maths and English. Getting a Division 1 or 2 are important for progression, yet fewer than 6% of students nationally gain a Division 1 aggregate.

The results at the schools were far better than the national average and the schools were among the best performing schools in their Districts.

MUSTARD SEED SCHOOL

7 students gained a Division 1 – over 12% of the students entered.

The school was 5th out of the 40 schools in the Kamuli District and 462 in the list of top 1800 schools in the New Vision national newspaper. Mustard Seed School did have a weak tail end of students and two failures – but these were two girls who joined the school in senior 4 having had a poor education in another school.

ISAAC NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL

The school did even better gaining 10 Division 1 (14% of the students entered).

Because Peter allowed another school with weak students to use his exam centre it depressed the schools place in the overall rankings. In the official rankings it came 559 out of the top 1800 schools and 10th out of 30 schools in the Kalunga District, but excluding the weaker students from the other school it would have been about 300th position nationally and 5th in the District. The Isaac Newton School gained better grades across the whole student entry with very few weak students. One girl missed the exams due to pregnancy and she will be rejoining the school this year to complete her studies – with Peter’s mother and sister looking after the baby for her.

Both Moses and Peter put the success down to having lots of books, which allow the students to study outside class and research additional information to supplement lessons. They have both also started using scholarships to attract students with a grade 1 in their primary leaving certificate – but they pick the most needy from among these.

UHST has been following a “Book flood” policy since we started. There is evidence from around the world that books make a huge difference to performance in rural schools in impoverished areas. The RACHEL repository of encyclopaedic and non-fiction materials on the school computer networks are also making a contribution.

Reporters from local newspapers and radio descended on the schools to find out why they had done so well. Three local radio stations interviewed Moses at Mustard Seed School. Very diplomatically he praised the parents of the area on producing such bright and hard-working students. He also praised his teachers for working hard on behalf of the students. He picked out the good facilities, which the school has to offer and, particularly, the large stock of textbooks and computers meant that students had access to up-to-date information to help with their studies.

Peter, at Isaac Newton, was interviewed for a national radio station. He had no hesitation in saying that having a large quantity of books and science materials had made the difference. The school was too small to provide full-time posts for specialist teachers and the pay they can offer is low. Therefore, in common with other rural start-up schools, he had been forced to rely heavily upon part-time and casual teachers. While necessary, such teachers only stay on site when they are giving lessons, so they are not available to help students outside lessons. The books make a huge difference in this setting. Ready access to books has created a learning culture, where students take responsibility for their own learning and study together in their free time, in the evenings and at weekends. Peter was asked about the Humanist Ethos of the school and the meaning of the school motto “To Reason not to Believe”. He explained that the school emphasises science and applying its principles to daily life – this involves encouraging students to question prior beliefs and subject what they are told to reason and evidence. This he felt was the way for students to succeed in a modern society.