Education Sierra Leone Project #40172

Educate 50 vulnerable children in Sierra Leone

by EducAid Sierra Leone

Educate 50 vulnerable children in Sierra Leone

Project Report | Sep 28, 2021
The 2021-22 School Year Has Begun!

By Erin Northey | Chief Executive

Back in the Classroom

Since our last update, the 2021-22 school year has begun. EducAid’s Maronka Primary School welcomed 100 students (47% female) on 6^th September. Of these 100 students, 57 live at the school full time. Maronka’s 2020-21 Eagles classed have all passed their National Primary School Examination (NPSE) and moved on to Junior Secondary School.

Maronka Primary School has a new Site Coordinator this year, Aruna. He is originally from the Port Loko district where Maronka is located. He joined EducAid as a student at EducAid’s Lumley School in Freetown in 2008, taking his secondary exams in 2016. Since that time, he has taught at EducAid’s Mafoimba and Maronka primary schools and worked with the Education Team supporting school improvement projects. His favourite subjects to teach are science, mathematics, agriculture and English.

We sat down with Aruna to ask him some questions about the upcoming school year at Maronka.

1. What are you most looking forward to this year?

I’m mostly looking forward to the following for this academic year:

Strengthening staff collaboration
Ensuring effective and excellent school running
Improving the literacy in the school in terms of student reading, speaking, writing and vocabulary acquisition
Improving the level of numeracy in the school
Encouraging children to adopt EducAid’s values in every aspect of their lives and seeing them support one another in achieving this
Making use of our space to develop a range of outdoor learning opportunities for all age groups across all disciplines.

2. What is your favourite thing about Maronka school?

My favorite aspects of Maronka is the speaking of English by the students in and out of the school compound, as well as the team work, the building of family and mostly, the way of learning.

3. How is Maronka different from other primary schools in Sierra Leone?

Well, Maronka is different from other primary schools in Sierra Leone in various ways like:

The English speaking by our students
The student-centred learning
The holistic learning
Upholding of the EVC – Every Voice Counts
Empowering young people in different ways
Giving leadership opportunity to young people in the school
Students attending briefing with staff
The independent work/learning
The students’ reading and writing
The support and involvement of the community through the School Management Committee

4. What goals and plans do you have for Maronka this year?

My goals and plans for Maronka this year are:

Building strong collaboration among staff and students
Increase the level of literacy and numeracy
Creating opportunities to collaborate with other schools
Maintaining an excellent running of the school
To ensure that the 100% pass rate in NPSE (National Primary School Examination) continues
Creating different opportunities for students learning
Strengthening community and school collaboration
Ensuring students safety and equality
Upholding the EducAid’s fees; excellent attendance, excellent behaviour and excellent effort in the school
Building a safe learning environment for both staff and students
Encouraging and continuing professional development amongst the staff

5. How has the first few weeks of school at Maronka gone this year?

The first few weeks of the school at Maronka went well. There was huge turn up of students and there was a great commitment of staff. There was effective learning in the school. The community supported us in the whole cleaning of the school and the compound. Parents were excited to send their children back to school.

6. What are you excited about this year?

For this academic year, I’m super excited about the readiness and enthusiasm of staff and students and the potential this brings to try new approaches to learning. I am also excited for the children and staff to make use of our newly organised library to support them in their learning and professional development.

7. What do you think Maronka's biggest challenge will be this year?

One of Maronka’s biggest challenges this year will be to get the new staff to fully understand the importance of the EducAid values and adapt to the full operation of the school running system. Despite this being a challenge, it also presents us with a great opportunity to share EducAid’s mission with new people, who will in turn provide fresh energy and enthusiasm.

We’re looking forward to sharing updates about all that is happening at Maronka this year. Thank you for your continued support.

In other exciting news, EducAid’s Rolal Junior and Senior Secondary School (where Maronka students progress to) is being showcased as 1 of 120 schools selected to participate in World Education Week 2021. On Monday 4^th October at 1pm GMT / 2pm BST / 9am ET, Rolal teachers will be presenting on EducAid’s unique way of working EVC (Every Voice Counts) that Aruna mentions above. Registration is free. Please do join us by signing up at the link. You can find the session by scrolling to the correct date and time. There is also additional information about the session and speakers available.

September 2021 at Maronka

Excited to Learn and Show What They Know

Reading at Maronka

Quiet Reading

Aruna, 2021-22 Maronka Site Coordinator

Links:

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Jun 2, 2021
EducAid's Maronka Primary School

By JP Sannoh | Maronka Site Coordinator

Maronka Green Schools Visit

EducAid Primary School Maronka - What has been happening at Maronka

Report created by Maronka Site Coordinator/Head Teacher JP Sannoh

Lots of great things has been happening in Maronka. These things have in one way or another contributed to the successful running of the school. Below are the highlights of the things that has been happening in Maronka for the past few months.

ECO (GREEN SCHOOL, 3R’S- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) SENSITISATION TOUR

Maronka Primary School embarked on a green school sensitization tour to the neighboring school in the early 2021. The essence of this visit was to create a platform which could encourage schools around the communities to figure out the reality and the significance of a green school and the necessity of reducing, reusing and recycling of waste. The visited school was happy for our noble visit as they promised to adhere to what they have learned from that visit. Below is the photo of the visit made. We will have another engagement visit to encourage tree planting in June.

COMMUNITY MEETING

EducAid believes in community collaboration and engagement as it is one of our core values. Therefore, at the start of each term, we engage with the community to plan together in making sure there is a smooth running platform in terms of community – school relationship throughout the term. This is a time to discuss vital issues concerning the school, students and community.

READING CLUB

EducAid believes in reading and encourages every students to engage in reading as often as possible. English is a Sierra Leonean’s third language, so at some point in time, children do find it difficult to incorporate the habit of speaking English. Therefore, EducAid Maronka is giving all forms of support to the students to build up their spoken English and writing as well. This reading club was formed to boost students' reading habits. It usually starts at 5:00 PM and ends at 5:40 PM. There has been great improvement in terms of reading and speaking. Below is a photo illustrating reading period.

INTER TUTOR QUIZ COMPETITION

As we work towards pursuing excellence across the organisation, we encourage the students to participate in inter tutor quiz competitions which happens every two weeks. This is essential because it act as an indicator of improvement in the students learning.

EXAMS PRACTICE

National Primary School Examinations are just around the corner. We believe in early preparation of exams students. We do believe that preparing the exams students helps them to understand the exams protocol and ethics. Based on that, we have frequently engaged on exams style practices. We have found that while other students from other schools were finding it difficult to abide by the rules and principles of the exams and were not familiar with exam protocols, our students were completely calm, having practiced filling out answer sheets and been exposed to the process as part of their preparation. Below is a photo showing our pre – preparation for the exams.

SPORTING TIME (PE SESSION)

We believe that extracurricular activities like sporting, do help the students to flex their minds and muscles. Therefore, we do encourage our students to be part of every Wednesday sporting activity. Below is a photo of a recent PE Session.

SPEED BUMP CONSTRUCTION

As SAFETY is one of our core values, quite recently, the pupils organised themselves with the assistance and supervision of two staff to construct speed bumps in the school compound most especially along the access road for bikes and vehicles. This activity was done in order to slow down the speed of bikes and vehicles within the school area.

GLOBAL MATHS WEEK

We believe in global engagement as it will help us to enhance understanding and helps to improve our learning. Maronka took part in Global Maths Week with students participating in various math activities and games.

WORDS VESSLES

This idea was initiated in order to encourage the students to get use to new words. Any new word they come across while reading is written down on a piece of paper. The word would then be put in the vessel. The number of pieces of words in the vessel determines the amount of new vocabulary a student has learnt for the day. See photo below.

DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOL IN A BAG

A few days ago we received donation of 99 bags from School in a Bag. These bags were distributed amongst the students. This has made the school very colorful, seeing every student carrying a red bag on their backs

These are some of the exciting things that have been happening in EducAid Maronka. Thank you for your support of our school and students!

Reading at Maronka

Maronka NPSE Exam Practice

Maronka PE Session / Sporting Activity

Word Vessels

Colourful Maronka - new backpacks

Links:

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Feb 2, 2021
The 2020-21 Maronka School Year Is Underway!

By Erin Northey | Chief Executive

Handwashing on the first day of school at Maronka

Since our last update, EducAid’s Maronka Primary School has been filled with activity and abuzz with learning.

On 5^th October, schools in Sierra Leone reopened for the 2020-21 school year. Maronka welcomed 110 students. This number includes 56 home students who live at school and 44 day students. 49% of Maronka's 110 pupils are girls with 39 of these girls living at school.

Just a few days later on 8^th October, the world was watching as Maronka Primary School was showcased as part of T4's World Education Week. EducAid's Maronka School was chosen as one of T4's top 100 schools around the world. The goal of the week was for schools to share their collective experience and strategies to improve education around the world. EducAid’s Maronka Team did a wonderful job showcasing Maronka and EducAid’s sustainable school improvement programme whilst offered practical resources for engaging communities in the safety of children and schools.

Learning at Maronka is always full of adventure and hands-on activities. Pupils celebrated World Maths Week in November with games and activities that could be heard throughout the village. Each year, students plant and care for trees as part of EducAid’s science and environmental curriculum. Deforestation is a dangerous threat in Sierra Leone, a lesson students know well from mudslides and forests disappearing around them in rural Port Loko. Students once again planted their seedlings for the year, whilst also designing and building structures to protect last year's seedlings from local goats.

Environmental and agricultural science is an integral part of EducAid’s curriculum at each level in every classroom. At Maronka, the world is the classroom as students learn about the changing seasons (rainy and dry) and recently, about the structure of flowers and pollination. Students are already looking forward to mango season which is just around the corner.

Each EducAid school is working on eco projects to protect the environment and discourage waste in community-specific ways. Students and teachers work together to come up with ideas and to capture data relating to environmental impact. Maronka Primary School is no exception. Maronka has been sharing its efforts with other local schools in an effort to join forces to protect their community by collecting and reducing plastic waste.

Planting a new seedling

Building structures to protect seedlings

Agricultural science lesson

Learning about pollination

Sharing eco projects with local schools

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