Dear Sponsors

YOUR SUPPORT IS SO IMPORTANT

I must first thank you for your continued support, I cannot emphasize enough how important you all are to the school. Without you we would not be where we are today. Our goals are not just to offer schooling for children from poor backgrounds, our aim is to give them the best opportunities possible so they can have a fighting chance in life. By us paying forward, we are helping the next generation to stand on their own two feet. Our vision at Jofi, is that one day The Gambia won’t be seen as a poor nation relying on handouts. Through good education these children will have equal opportunities and the ability to take on top jobs, run companies and become self-sufficient.

NEW STAFF

We have increased the number of teachers, because, if anyone was absent, we didn’t have a teacher to cover the class, and we wanted Mr Kabba to be able to engage his time better and be able  to concentrate on remedial lessons and assess the children’s reading standards before they are allowed go to the next level in the reading programme.   We have 4 new teachers join us this year, 2 male and 2 female, all fresh out of college, which means they have not come to us with experience, but they have come with open minds and a keen attitude. We felt that training our teachers in-house with bright new ideas gives us the opportunity to nurture a good and strong team. 

TEACHER TRAINING

It is important that, from the first day a child steps into school, the teacher works towards preparing the  foundation for the rest of their education.

Gilly Baker has dedicated so much of her time this year with her teacher training courses, helping them to use modern teaching methods rather than the chalk and board system which is widely used here in The Gambia. Education starts with the basics. Teaching children to think for themselves, learning to work things out for themselves. If a child cannot understand how to solve problems, they cannot be expected to learn. 

This year Gilly has been training the nursery teachers in the use of “Schema” which encourages learning through play. Reading skills are the basis of a child’s education, if they cannot read, they cannot do any other subject, they cannot answer a question if they cannot read it, so the Primary teachers are now being trained to use workbooks whereby the children are assessed before they are allowed to go to the next level. Her ongoing training courses and tireless intervention has seen amazing results, teachers teach with confidence, children are interested and keen to learn and the standard of education is improving daily.

SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS

Field trips play a very important part of our students’ life. Many of them have never been more than a mile or two from the proximity of the school. We have set up an itinerary so each class will visit a different place each year throughout their time at Jofi. The field trips are designed to be educational and cover topics related to the age and learning ability of the child.

Nursery 1,  2,  and 3 each spent a day at Luigi’s they got to play in the pool, sleep on the beds. Learn the different appliances in the rooms. They all had a tour of the kitchen and Nurseries 2 and 3 also got to make their own pizza for lunch too!

Grade 1 visited Banjul International Airport and the Horse and Donkey Trust. They first were taken on a tour of the airport and got to see how the passengers are screened before travelling and how the luggage is checked and x-rayed before departure. The next stop was to the Horse and Donkey Trust. The object of the tour is for them to learn that animals need to be looked after as many children in The Gambia are fearful of them, especially dogs. By the end of the tour, they had learned not to run, and even how to approach and pet the animals.

Grade 2 Visited My Farm, which is a micro farm. They learned how they can make their own projects to grow vegetables, identify different plants, they were shown the different farm animals, how they keep bees,  how solar power cooking works,  and even how to play chess.

Grade 3 Visited the National Assembly and the Banjul Museum. This is a very important and interesting place for them to visit, the children all had their questions ready when they visited the National Assembly.  Our guide was so impressed with them, he took them downstairs in the lift as a  special treat, I have to say I felt very proud and honoured by the children’s conduct during our school trip.

Grade 4 Visited the Reptile Farm and Tanji Museum. Clo took this group because I can’t cope with snakes. I understand it is one of the most popular trips, all the children want to see the snakes AND HOLD THEM! I must commend Grade 4 because they were SO well behaved, they were allowed see the baby hyena. The guide said “they were the only children that had been allowed to go to see her“.

Grade 5 visited the War Cemetery, Batik Factory, and Katchikally crocodile pool, they were shown the art of tie and dye and wax cloth printing. Then we went to the sacred site of Katchikally where the crocodile pool is, they learned how the pool came about and got a very close view of the crocodiles. There is a nice little museum at the crocodile pool where there is a room dedicated to the role The Gambian soldiers played in World War 2.

For the first time, we took grade 6 on an overnight excursion up country to Janjanbureh. We hired a coach, which was supposed to be airconditioned, but unfortunately that broke before we got past Manjai. So, the journey was extremely hot. We drove on the south bank to avoid crossing on the Banjul ferry, and instead we crossed over the bridge at Soma to the north bank. It took five hours to reach our first stop, the Wassu Stone Circles, which is a historical site that dates back over 1500 years. We were told that the stones were cut from a quarry just 200 metres away and then rolled to the site. From excavations, some iron age armour was discovered, leading them to believe that it was an ancient burial site. The day was so hot, our phones were overheating, so we have a limited number of photos.

From there, we went by boat on the river to Janjanbureh camp. The river trip took four hours, but it is a beautiful cruise up the river, and on the way, we saw hippos. It is very hard to capture photos as they move so fast in the water hence NO photos, luckily, we did manage to capture some videos.

We spent the night at Janjanbureh camp. The Camp is very basic, no electricity and very little running water, but everyone enjoyed the experience, and the place is very serene, apart from the monkeys, who are constantly trying to steal the food. The children thought it was great fun and shared half their dinners with them.

The next day we got up very early and crossed by ferry to the island where slaves were held. Our guide was waiting on the dock, he first took us to the freedom tree. There we were met by a local historian who is very knowledgeable and had a unique way of narrating the tales of the slave trade while drumming. His storytelling kept the children completely absorbed and focused on every word. We were told of how the disobedient slaves were made to run from the slave house to the freedom tree. “IF” they made it they would be branded with a hot iron and set free. But to reach the freedom tree they first had to overcome many obstacles, packs of dogs chasing them, solders firing at them and finally barbed wire surrounding the tree AND all while they were shackled in chains… It was an amazing recollection of fact figures and dates.

From there we visited the old slave house where the slaves were kept underground in dungeons. We were shown inside by the guide who explained the terrible conditions the slaves were kept in and how they were tortured, how they had to fight for food that was dropped through holes in the wall and how they lived shackled together and sat or lay in their own faeces. The excursion was an incredible experience for them to travel and to learn about the history of their ancestors.

FEEDING PROGRAM

As you are aware, we have always provided food for the children in way of bread with a nutritious filling. It seems to have come increasingly apparent that, with the chronic inflation, the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is widening. Most of our children are on the ‘have not’ end of the scale. We are seeing more children coming to school hungry and scruffy. To combat the hunger, we are now trying to offer a high protein main meal with meat or fish, rice or pasta which can sustain them longer. It also makes sure they are getting the required nutrients needed for growth. A child cannot concentrate if they are hungry!

EXTRA CURRICULUM  CLASSES

This year Linda has continued with her song and dance classes every Thursday. She takes 3 groups: Nursery 2 and 3, Grade 1 and 2 then Grades 4 and 5, they are very proficient singers now and they really love to entertain. Grade 3 are taking their NATs exam this year, so they have extra studies with Mr Bojang.  We wish them every success in the exam.

I have continued taking Grade 6 food science classes, but we had to do things differently this year, it is quite different having a class of 19 opposed to the 5 children last year. They have had great fun making Cornish pasties, pizza, and cakes, they made all the cakes for their Christmas party, it was a very good team building exercise too. Second term they learned about the importance of nutrition and the relationship between food and health.  This term they have been learning how to preserve food, it is so important in a country like The Gambia where electricity supply is so poor and so much food goes to waste because people lack the simple skills to preserve their foods.

The children learned to salt dry fish; we covered the fish in salt for 3 days drained off the water and hung them to dry. Six weeks later I took them down and soaked the fish overnight, the next day I cooked them so the children could see that it works and how  very tasty it is. We also smoked meat, every child that had a local kitchen took a piece home and hung it over the cooking area. They brought it back 2 weeks later, it was soaked overnight and the next day it was made into Benachin for lunch.

We also made Mango jam, Mango and Apple Chutney, and Pickled vegetables.

CHANGES IN THE SCHOOL

We have achieved amazing things this year with a great deal of help from our dear friend and sponsor Chris Bialan. He has help us develop a new IT room so we can keep our computers in a safe environment and have a better learning area for the children. He has also supported many projects like the overnight excursion to Janjanbureh to name but a few. We cannot thank him enough for his dynamic tenacity in getting things done.

We have now come to a crossroads. Last year our grade 6 only consisted of 5 students and we were,  fortunately, able to place them in another school together, but it did raise a big question.

We are putting a great deal of effort into the quality of the education at Jofi, but the children still need to further their education to at least Grade 9. The problem is that many families can’t even afford the uniform, let alone books for a state school. This means all our efforts will have been wasted. Chris describes it as just putting a sticking plaster on it! In other words, we must see the job through if we are to make a difference.

On that note, he asked me to find some land to purchase so we would be able to build a high school. We need to keep in mind that not all the children will be academic and so we must make provisions for a skills centre too.

THE BIG NEWS

We managed to find a property just off the High Road opposite Jofi, Chris has purchased the land and we now need to raise the funds to build the school. 

We need to act now, as time is of the essence. For this September coming, we will manage to keep Grade 7 in Jofi School by providing classes for them in the afternoon while the new school is being built.

We are looking to provide a school that caters for a wide range of abilities and learning styles and doesn’t just concentrate on the academic, so the high school will need a lot of extra facilities such as a science lab, home economics department, skills workshop, art room and IT department as well as the general classrooms. The Estimated total cost of the build will be approx. £250,000.

We will be looking to raise funds through donations to build the new school, so any amount will always be well appreciated, it doesn’t matter how small as every  penny counts. By the grace of God, I hope we are as fortunate in building Jofi Modern High school as we were in building Jofi Modern.