by John Walker
BEECH
Hill Community Primary School, Luton - which is twinned with Sohm Lower
Basic school - recently held their second "Gambia Day" and raised over
£2,000 for their linked school
in The Gambia.
|
|
Beech Hill's 2019 Gambia Day: some of the pupils
"modelling" African masks we took for the occasion,
all suitably dressed in Gambian flag colours, and
supervised by SSS's Sandra Walker,
sporting her Gambian top
|
It
was a "non-uniform" day in the school, and pupils were encouraged to go
dressed in the red, blue and green colours of The Gambian flag. Sandra
and John Walker,
of Sohm Schools
Support lead assemblies for the 900 pupils at the school, and were in
attendance all day, sharing stories and watching the Luton children hard
at work
|
|
Beech Hill pupils, hard at work,
creating Gambian flags
|
The
day's school work was turned over to Gambia-related topics, as students
wrote postcards home to their parents, based on an imaginary holiday in
the tourist country of The Gambia.
Other children drew and painted African scenes, from materials shown to
them by our charity and accessed on the internet. There were African
dance, song and story telling sessions; and at the end of the day some
of the pupils' parents sold curries and other
food, from donated products, with the proceeds going to the Gambian
school.
|
|
Painting and cutting out masks
|
Over
£2,000 was raised on the day, bringing the total fund raising efforts
of Beech Hill's pupils, parents and staff to over £8,000 over the last
two years.
Natalie
Carson, deputy head of Beech Hill said: "The Sohm story has really
captured the imagination of our pupils and parents, who have been
delighted to help. I visited
the school in The Gambia about 5 years ago, and know what a huge
difference our students' efforts will make to improving the educational
chances of these African youngsters. The Gambia work is great for
extending our children's education and appreciation of
the ways of life of people their same age in other countries."
Some
of the staff at Beech Hill have recently put a huge amount of work into
creating an exhibition for the school's foyer, showing pupils and
parents, alike, the results of some
of the school-twinning.
|
|
Beech Hill's Sohm exhibition -
pride of place in the school foyer
|
The
exhibition shows: Sohm and Luton's youngsters work celebrating the
twinning. There are "before" and "after" photos of the difference
Luton's fund-raising has made to projects
in Sohm. There are press cuttings of some of the excellent coverage
Beech Hill has received from Luton Today.
A
key feature of the exhibit is the "building blocks of progress", this
shows how far Beech Hill has come in raising its target of £10,000 for
The Gambian school. Sohm School
Support trustee, Sandra Walker said:
We
are able to get "matched funding" from others for Beech Hill's efforts,
which means we can soon start construction on our most
ambitious project: a 30 metre hall and kitchen for Sohm Lower Basic
school. This will replace a dangerous and dilapidated dining hall that
was not fit for purpose.
|
|
And ... the money raised by Beech Hill,
to date - in excess of £8,000 - well placed
to hit their £10,000 target by 2020.
|
The
new building will be multi-functional and act as a dining hall, gym,
meeting room, assembly hall, prayer room and the village's
first community hall. It will last until the Beech Hill students are
themselves parents of primary school pupils in Luton. What a fabulous
present and legacy they are giving to their Gambian friends!
Meanwhile,
we undertake to keep you updated, as progress is made on the
construction of the new building and hope to be there for its opening in
the new year, which we will record
and share on this site.
John Walker
07954 153 305 Gambia stuff: www.SohmSchoolsSupport.org.uk
@GambiaSchools Forest Gate stuff: www.E7-NowAndThen.org, @E7_NowAndThen
Posts
