Teachers were delighted and completely engaged with the content of the second day of the 3rd Humanist Schools Conference, whose broad theme is: ” Quality Education based on Reason, Compassion and Self-reliance”. The second day was devoted to achieving high standards of student welfare and of education.
The welfare issue that this conference chose to focus upon was the maintenance of good interpersonal behaviour and school discipline. We invited the Ugandan NGO Raising Voices to organise a workshop to present the Good Schools Toolkit. The kit explores strategies for identifying signs of physical, sexual and verbal abuse of and by both children and staff. The trainer, Mariam Nankiyingi, from a Muslim heritage, was an excellent story teller and motivator. Our audience clung on to Mariam’s every word as she recounted examples of abuse that can occur within schools, including why some seemingly mild chastisements might become abuse when used thoughtlessly and repeated often. The teachers were delighted to receive ideas of a variety of alternative strategies for achieving positive discipline, i.e. the sort of discipline that comes from within rather than by the exercise of force.
There were a series of other parallel workshops given by primary and secondary experts, who were either examiners for `Uganda National Examination Board or belonged to a subject panel of the National Curriculum Development Centre. The primary workshops covered improving performance of students in literacy, numeracy and social studies. The secondary ones focused upon English, Mathematics, Science and Geography.
The conference is going well and there is much to look forward to on the final day.
There is much excitement at Isaac Newton High School the day before they host the 3rd Humanist Schools Conference. Rooms are being cleaned, the site tidied, furniture and sleeping quarters arranged, catering arrangements finalised and welcoming posters displayed at the school entrance and along approaching roads.
While testing the equipment we found that the all-important data projector was overheating and cutting out after 3 minutes. With the fan not working we rushed the ailing machine to a technician in Masaka City, and placed a precautionary order for a replacement projector (needed anyway). The new projector is being sent by local taxi service from Kampala, so should be here this morning (?), hours before the conference starts this afternoon.
Although the school vacation has started, Senior 4 and 6 students have stayed in school for an extra 2 weeks of exam preparation. They are still trying to make up study time they lost during Covid and Ebola outbreaks.
I met the performing art students who made the school’s stunning new promotional video. The video is outstanding, and they are rightly very proud of their work. Students explained to me how, after writing and rehearsing the song, they were all taken to a recording studio in Masaka to make the sound recording. Once they were happy with that, they came back to school to make the film, miming to the sound recording. The young film maker used a small drone to take video sequences of the school from the air.
After talking about the video, a group of students sat for a relaxed chat. They told me of life in school. The pride they have in their school was evident. The only perennial complaint of school children throughout the world was of school dinners. As is the norm in Uganda, the staple diet is posho and beans. Though for a change they do have beans and posho. Although monotonous, it gives them the basic essentials and they get their vitamins from fruit which is widely available. Although the diet is limited, the students looked healthy.
They asked me about school dinners in the UK. I explained that British children can usually choose what food they pick, but there are various ploys to encourage them to choose healthily. I know that our British grandchildren look forward to their pizzas (less healthy than posho and beans!), which are served every Thursday. They asked me to name my favourite food. I had to come clean and tell them that it was a dubiously less healthy “bangers and mash”. The discussion ranged far. They were interested in how many children I had (two). I told them how quickly family sizes had come down in Britain from the previous generation to me. My father was one of “at least” 9 (I never knew the actual number), and my mother one of 3 (although her mother had died at the age of 31). They told me about their own families, which ranged from 2 to 13 children. The evidence is that, even in rural areas of Africa, the demographic transition is beginning to happen, as more cash-earning job opportunities become available to women and girls.
The three Humanist Schools coming from Bundibugyo District were so excited about the conference that they decided to arrive a day early. Peter Kisirinya is now rushing around to make sure that beds are ready for them and arranging for the kitchen to prepare food for an evening meal. Nothing is too much trouble for Peter, who wants this long-awaited conference to go well. I feel certain it will.
Katumba Humanist Primary School has featured before on local radio programmes, but last week they went one step further. Development FM, which transmits in Western Uganda and Eastern Congo, devoted a half-hour talk show to highlight the school’s achievements. The school has brought hope to this forgotten community in the Ruwenzori foothills alongside the Congo border. Many local parents, including the Development FM reporter, have been keen to get their children into this inclusive, secular school.
Initial Presentation
Irumba Juma Siriwayo, the school’s Director, took the opportunity to thank their development partners, Uganda Humanist Schools Trust, Humanist Aid, Sweden and the Ethical Society of St Louis and Scope Uganda. The whole community has been inspired. Since 2019 the following impressive buildings have been completed:
3 nursery and 8 infant and primary classrooms.
A cook house with efficient, externally vented wood burning stoves.
Vented toilet blocks for children and staff.
Staff rooms, computer room and book reading room.
Changing rooms to promote girls’ menstrual health. Girls are given free reusable sanitary pads by members of the Ethical Society of St Louis.
A fine, multipurpose hall was completed this week. This will enable children to take their Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) within the school, instead of travelling to exam centres miles away.
Humanist Aid, Sweden, has helped to provide a support fund to help children from destitute homes who have difficulty paying their school fees.
UHST supporters ensure that the school is supplied with books and equipment for games, sports and science.
Scope Uganda provides permaculture training so children can create a school food forest.
With the school gaining good PLE results more parents want an opportunity for more children to continue to secondary education. The school’s current dream is to offer this at Katumba, as soon as sufficient resources can be mobilised.
On-air Discussion
When the moderator opened the programme to calls from the public, over 100 listeners responded. Listeners were appreciative of the progress the school has made and thanked donors for having built a unique modern school in the neglected village of Katumba Kisendera in Bukonzo subcounty. Many callers supported the addition of a secondary section.
Mr. Muhanika Julius A, our PTA member for academic standards, urged parents to support the school and work with teachers in improving the cognitive (knowledge), affective (values and sensibilities) and psychomotor (physical) abilities of the area’s children.
Mzee Bandaliza Amosi, the PTA Chairman, thanked Juma, as the managing Director, for inspiring the infrastructure developments, books, educational materials and the ICT Programme in the school. He further appealed to the parents to pay fees on time to ensure the ongoing sustainability of this fine school, which had been funded by donors.
Mr. Keith Morris, Director of Studies, explained that remedial teaching is offered to pupils whenever needed. This is important following unavoidable absences. Our children have a chance to assess what they still need to learn through regular homework and testing and we do our best to ensure that no child gets left behind. He thanked UHST supporters for equipping the school with reading materials. This has helped children to learn independently of the teacher.
Mr. Freedom Balikamaya , in charge sports, games and co-curricular activities, thanked UHST supporters for a recent donation for materials to develop games and sports in the school. Now that we have a Hall, we also need musical instruments to promote music, dance and drama.
Girls’ football team
Viola Atuhame, a pupil, said that sanitary pads and a place where girls can change them had really increased girls’ confidence in school. She also enjoyed using computers to send emails and messages to parents and friends.
Thembo Barbrine, another pupil, said he was proud to have moved a step forward into the digital world. He made a plea for more computers.
Computer room receives its first laptop computers
This ended a hugely successful venture into community engagement.
Posted: August 31, 2023 by Steve Hurd
Improving student welfare & educational standards
Teachers were delighted and completely engaged with the content of the second day of the 3rd Humanist Schools Conference, whose broad theme is: ” Quality Education based on Reason, Compassion and Self-reliance”. The second day was devoted to achieving high standards of student welfare and of education.
The welfare issue that this conference chose to focus upon was the maintenance of good interpersonal behaviour and school discipline. We invited the Ugandan NGO Raising Voices to organise a workshop to present the Good Schools Toolkit. The kit explores strategies for identifying signs of physical, sexual and verbal abuse of and by both children and staff. The trainer, Mariam Nankiyingi, from a Muslim heritage, was an excellent story teller and motivator. Our audience clung on to Mariam’s every word as she recounted examples of abuse that can occur within schools, including why some seemingly mild chastisements might become abuse when used thoughtlessly and repeated often. The teachers were delighted to receive ideas of a variety of alternative strategies for achieving positive discipline, i.e. the sort of discipline that comes from within rather than by the exercise of force.
There were a series of other parallel workshops given by primary and secondary experts, who were either examiners for `Uganda National Examination Board or belonged to a subject panel of the National Curriculum Development Centre. The primary workshops covered improving performance of students in literacy, numeracy and social studies. The secondary ones focused upon English, Mathematics, Science and Geography.
The conference is going well and there is much to look forward to on the final day.
Posted: August 30, 2023 by Steve Hurd
Final Conference preparations
There is much excitement at Isaac Newton High School the day before they host the 3rd Humanist Schools Conference. Rooms are being cleaned, the site tidied, furniture and sleeping quarters arranged, catering arrangements finalised and welcoming posters displayed at the school entrance and along approaching roads.
While testing the equipment we found that the all-important data projector was overheating and cutting out after 3 minutes. With the fan not working we rushed the ailing machine to a technician in Masaka City, and placed a precautionary order for a replacement projector (needed anyway). The new projector is being sent by local taxi service from Kampala, so should be here this morning (?), hours before the conference starts this afternoon.
Although the school vacation has started, Senior 4 and 6 students have stayed in school for an extra 2 weeks of exam preparation. They are still trying to make up study time they lost during Covid and Ebola outbreaks.
I met the performing art students who made the school’s stunning new promotional video. The video is outstanding, and they are rightly very proud of their work. Students explained to me how, after writing and rehearsing the song, they were all taken to a recording studio in Masaka to make the sound recording. Once they were happy with that, they came back to school to make the film, miming to the sound recording. The young film maker used a small drone to take video sequences of the school from the air.
After talking about the video, a group of students sat for a relaxed chat. They told me of life in school. The pride they have in their school was evident. The only perennial complaint of school children throughout the world was of school dinners. As is the norm in Uganda, the staple diet is posho and beans. Though for a change they do have beans and posho. Although monotonous, it gives them the basic essentials and they get their vitamins from fruit which is widely available. Although the diet is limited, the students looked healthy.
They asked me about school dinners in the UK. I explained that British children can usually choose what food they pick, but there are various ploys to encourage them to choose healthily. I know that our British grandchildren look forward to their pizzas (less healthy than posho and beans!), which are served every Thursday. They asked me to name my favourite food. I had to come clean and tell them that it was a dubiously less healthy “bangers and mash”. The discussion ranged far. They were interested in how many children I had (two). I told them how quickly family sizes had come down in Britain from the previous generation to me. My father was one of “at least” 9 (I never knew the actual number), and my mother one of 3 (although her mother had died at the age of 31). They told me about their own families, which ranged from 2 to 13 children. The evidence is that, even in rural areas of Africa, the demographic transition is beginning to happen, as more cash-earning job opportunities become available to women and girls.
The three Humanist Schools coming from Bundibugyo District were so excited about the conference that they decided to arrive a day early. Peter Kisirinya is now rushing around to make sure that beds are ready for them and arranging for the kitchen to prepare food for an evening meal. Nothing is too much trouble for Peter, who wants this long-awaited conference to go well. I feel certain it will.
Posted: August 27, 2023 by Steve Hurd
Katumba on community radio
Katumba Humanist Primary School has featured before on local radio programmes, but last week they went one step further. Development FM, which transmits in Western Uganda and Eastern Congo, devoted a half-hour talk show to highlight the school’s achievements. The school has brought hope to this forgotten community in the Ruwenzori foothills alongside the Congo border. Many local parents, including the Development FM reporter, have been keen to get their children into this inclusive, secular school.
Initial Presentation
Irumba Juma Siriwayo, the school’s Director, took the opportunity to thank their development partners, Uganda Humanist Schools Trust, Humanist Aid, Sweden and the Ethical Society of St Louis and Scope Uganda. The whole community has been inspired. Since 2019 the following impressive buildings have been completed:
With the school gaining good PLE results more parents want an opportunity for more children to continue to secondary education. The school’s current dream is to offer this at Katumba, as soon as sufficient resources can be mobilised.
On-air Discussion
When the moderator opened the programme to calls from the public, over 100 listeners responded. Listeners were appreciative of the progress the school has made and thanked donors for having built a unique modern school in the neglected village of Katumba Kisendera in Bukonzo subcounty. Many callers supported the addition of a secondary section.
Mr. Muhanika Julius A, our PTA member for academic standards, urged parents to support the school and work with teachers in improving the cognitive (knowledge), affective (values and sensibilities) and psychomotor (physical) abilities of the area’s children.
Mzee Bandaliza Amosi, the PTA Chairman, thanked Juma, as the managing Director, for inspiring the infrastructure developments, books, educational materials and the ICT Programme in the school. He further appealed to the parents to pay fees on time to ensure the ongoing sustainability of this fine school, which had been funded by donors.
Mr. Keith Morris, Director of Studies, explained that remedial teaching is offered to pupils whenever needed. This is important following unavoidable absences. Our children have a chance to assess what they still need to learn through regular homework and testing and we do our best to ensure that no child gets left behind. He thanked UHST supporters for equipping the school with reading materials. This has helped children to learn independently of the teacher.
Mr. Freedom Balikamaya , in charge sports, games and co-curricular activities, thanked UHST supporters for a recent donation for materials to develop games and sports in the school. Now that we have a Hall, we also need musical instruments to promote music, dance and drama.
Viola Atuhame, a pupil, said that sanitary pads and a place where girls can change them had really increased girls’ confidence in school. She also enjoyed using computers to send emails and messages to parents and friends.
Thembo Barbrine, another pupil, said he was proud to have moved a step forward into the digital world. He made a plea for more computers.
This ended a hugely successful venture into community engagement.