Ruth Mother Care School

I was really excited to go to Ruth Mother Care School on Tuesday and Wednesday because I enjoy teaching and want to use the time I spend with the children in the school to try to inspire the same love of learning that I have in them. I believe in Nelson Mandela’s quote ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to save the world’ and this is a philosophy which Ruth, the founder and head teacher of the school shares.

Her vision for the school is really remarkable because it is a partly charitable school set up for families who are unable to afford the full school fees for their children. The families pay what they are able to afford and then the rest is covered by the school, empowering the children to be able to have aspirations and opportunities they would never have been able to access because of their family’s financial situation. 
  

Lois and Kate were more worried about teaching at the school, but for me getting there sounded like it was going to be more of an ordeal. We were going by boda boda- the Ugandan version of a motorbike! This would be my first ride in the daytime on the bumpy back roads. I went on with Kate with me in the middle so I wasn’t scared that I was going to fall off. I was celebrating the fact that I survived when we arrived at the school when I was almost knocked over by the children rushing out of the classroom to hug Kate and I (so sweet!) I actually forgot to pay the boda driver until he asked because I was so overwhelmed.

 

I thought that was a good welcoming but they had prepared personalised welcome songs for us, which was even more special. We sat down in front of the staffroom whilst watching them perform in different classes, dance and even model, by which time we were in fits of laughter. They really are such talented young performers and the songs allowed their personalities to shine through.

Us watching the performances

 

We had been expecting to spend our first day observing the teacher’s lessons to give us an idea of the typical style of delivering lessons and learning at the school, but this wasn’t the case! After break time, I was ushered into one classroom with Kate and Lois in the other and told to teach reading. Luckily for me, I just had to read a story to them and write out some comprehension questions out but Kate and Lois had to teach on nouns and verbs without remembering the difference between them!!

In the afternoon I taught about transport and the different types for example air, water, railway, road, which I really enjoyed. I tried to be as creative as possible and consequently spent a few hours looking rather silly doing the actions and noises for the different types of transport to the amusement of the children.

On Tuesday my favourite lesson I taught was on the environment, so using the textbook I taught classifying animals as wild or domestic, their spelling, teaching ‘If I Were a Butterfly’, reading 'Giraffes Can’t Dance' and matching up animals and their young ones.

Teaching animals and their young ones

 

A funny situation on Tuesday was when I was given a textbook at lunch and asked to teach a lesson on the life cycle of a mosquito and how it caused malaria when I didn’t know about it myself. I didn’t have time to look at the textbook before we had to go to eat lunch, so I had to attempt to teach at the same time as learning it myself. This resulted in me making up amusing actions for the different life cycles e.g. wriggling for wriggler lavae.

One of the most challenging things we have encountered at the school is teaching ‘nursery class' in the afternoons. ‘Nursery class’ is made up of children of preschool age and is divided into groups of ‘top’ ‘middle’ and ‘baby,’ within the same classroom because of the shortage of land and classrooms that the school currently has. The classroom is small and there are about twenty five children so it is difficult to keep all concentrating and engaged at the same time. When there is only one or two of you in the classroom, you can imagine it’s quite a feat to differentiate between the different learning stages they are at, keep them listening and check their work at the same time.  Despite this, they really are such a joy to teach!

I have had a fantastic first few days at the school and  have felt so welcomed. The teachers are all lovely and have been very friendly to us. During break time, one of the classrooms is used as a staffroom where tea and samosas are served and this week we have had delicious japattis for lunch.

I am looking forward to going back next week and getting to know the children better.

The structure of the school

 

Playtime

 

Reading to the nursery section