School in Katutura, Windhoek

Through a connection with a family from Wadestown School (the Harris Family) who also live across the road from my father, we were able to go and help out at an afternoon school. Cathy, the Harris's aunt is the lovely kiwi woman in the photo. It was in a township area of Windhoek called Katutura. Apparently, Namibian public schools aren't great, especially in township areas. Teachers often don't have higher than year 10 qualifications themselves, classes can be 40 or more, there is a lot of rote learning and of course behaviour management is a whack. So this school is run by expats and relies on volunteers (not always teachers) to teach the children. They have seen improved results from the Namibian school for lots of the children who attend the afternoon school and therefore have a large waiting list for children to come to the school. We ended up staying for 3 days - not a significant time in terms of the children's learning, but as the woman (a Norwegian social worker) was sick, the year one class was without a teacher so I was able to help out none the less.

I perhaps should have been warned when Cathy said, "They were wild when I took them yesterday." Basically there were around 20 year 1 children who had had about 5 days of school so far and no preschool education and the room was about 3x3 metres. It was reminiscent of some of my decile 1 relieving days. You pull on all your resources to survive. Pretty much on day one, we turned up and were taken to the class and I was left to do my thing. I.e. fly by the seat of my pants. Karl stayed and they children enjoyed any opportunity they had to climb on him, and were fascinated by the hair on his legs, arms and especially fingers. They were absolutely gorgeous and a good number of them keen to learn and attentive. Of course there were the obligatory scally-wags. 3 of them who pulled a couple more along at times. In terms of education, most could not write their names (I discovered on the second day when I tried to learn them all), they could sing ABC and count to 10 and that's about it. Well, enough of them could to make it sound like they all were. With Julie Roberts numeracy advisor's voice in my head we spent lots of time counting backwards from 10 (backwards is as important as forwards and is needed for subtraction!). We also did lots of activities using the letter b. (Forgive me if that wasn't a good place to start junior teachers!) We also sang a lot.

By Day three we were functioning much better. Of

course that was until the grasshopper entered the classroom. Hysteria reigned and I had to stop

several children from whacking it with their shoes. They calmed down and we did some maths with the bottle tops. There was a bag of about 500. When the kids were packing up the bag was tipped all over the floor. Metal tops on a tiled floor caused enough noise, but this was added to as children started sliding around on them and the throwing them in the air. It was loud and took a while to sort out. Heads, shoulders, knees and toes helped to get their focus back! Spot scally-wag number one in front of me! Because we had been learning about the letter b, we ended our time with the kids by giving them balloons. So lovely to see their excitement.

You can't see, but as this photo was being taken, I had children's hands playing with my hair ! They loved touching it!

We were able to donate some money to the school raised by the year 7 and 8s from Wadestown School.

Mention should also be made of the fact that Karl was dragged into teaching too. On day 2, the year 7 class was without a teacher so he was asked to step in. The lesson that he was given was quite open and so he ended up discussing climate change with them and making outfits out of plastic bags. He was exhausted by the end of it and had developed his respect for teachers somewhat. he wasn't keen for a repeat performance!

So, if anyone is keen, especially teachers, we can hook you up with some delightful children in Windhoek!