School Twinning

Derwentwater Primary School in Acton has twinned with the Sohm Lower basic school. This has establish some real international friendship links between the two sets of pupils, which will only get stronger, over time.

Sandra and John from the charity have run two, day-long sets of whole school assemblies on the links, at Derwentwater school. These have involved talking about life in Africa, for children. The Derwentwater pupils have written whole class diaries for us to take to Sohm and created school friendship songs and poems, to share. During Black History Month we held another series of assemblies, around the theme of 'African masks'. This resulted in a series of remarkable class masks making competitions, which we have judged (they were all winners!).

The Acton school has enthusiastically embraced fundraising for their Sohm friends via raffles, sponsored no-uniform days and stalls at summer and winter fairs. Their efforts have raised over £500, which will be spent directly on meeting some of the educational needs of their Gambian colleagues.

We will bring back records of the Sohm pupils' appreciation and school work, when we return to the UK in the spring of 2013, to give to the Derwentwater pupils.

Derwentwater pupils participating in an 'African Masks'
assembly, during Black History month 2012

Meanwhile, we are actively looking for a UK secondary school to twin with the Upper School in Sohm. We would liaise between the two schools, who would themselves determine the nature of their mutual co-operation. The possibilities are only limited by the imaginations of the participants!

If you think that you or your school might be interested, drop us a line and we'll be happy to come along and speak with your governors/PTA/staff/students to discuss the possibilities.

Working with the Lower Basic School

The Lower Basic School in Sohm is much longer established than the Senior School, with an experienced staff and a very inspirational head. It benefits from more state aid than secondary schools (e.g. supply of books etc), so is not in as great a need of outside financial support as the senior secondary school.

Sandra mobbed, as she visits Sohm Lower Basic School,
we'll be helping - with your support!

It is however, one of the feeder schools to the Senior Secondary School, and so we will assist the school in smaller ways, to lay a strong foundation for those who will become the senior schools' students, in years to come.

We have already provided some help (sponsoring some of the pupils, paying for exam papers etc) and will be offering teacher training support for the staff next spring.

We will continue to support the school, in other ways, if we are convinced it will be to the longer term advantage of those who attend Sohm Senior Secondary School.

Every penny donated to this charity is spent directly on improving the education of Gambian youngsters.

Upgrading Librarian Skills

As a result of generous donations, largely from Jersey, Sohm Senior Secondary School has one of the best libraries within the region, according to the ministry's inspection reports. But those same inspection reports draw attention to the need to improve the skills of the untrained library staff.

Training for school librarian needed, to get maximum benefit for this important educational resource

We are working with the Regional Director to address this, and so ensure that all of the school's pupils can benefit from help and guidance from a trained librarian. So, a small contribution to training costs of one person will positively impact on the educational chances of 263!

Increasing Text Book Supply

We have already supplied a range of core curriculum text books for parts of the upper school. We have made it clear that these are not the property of the students, but loans to them, to be passed on to future years intakes.

Our ideal would be to get to a system when a book loan system could be up and running that is self sustaining, as students contribute, by way of small loan fees to replenishing the stock. This will not always be possible, because of real local poverty.

Supplies of text books being delivered to the school - more required!

So, we will work with the school, to ensure that no student is denied access to necessary textbooks on grounds of financial difficulty.

It is our aim to establish a school books fund to ensure this goal is met. It is likely to require an investment of £5,000 to establish, with a regular annual top up sum of around £1,000. Your help with this would be very welcome!

Helping Students From Outlying Areas

As a rural school, Sohm Secondary attracts students from quite a large geographic area. There is no effective, reliable, local public transport - and in any case the school is mile and a half from the nearest main road. So journeys on foot of over an hour each way to and from school, in the blistering heat, are not uncommon.

UK charity, Jole Rider (JoleRider.org) supplied 100 bikes to the school a number of years ago. These are loaned to students for the year and then repaired ready for the next batch of students. Testimonies to how grateful Sohm has been for this gift flow on a regular basis.

Students arriving at school on bikes supplied by Jole Rider

This has enabled large numbers of pupils to attend the school, who would otherwise have been unable to do so.

Now the school is doubling in size, the need for bikes has increased, accordingly. We are working with Jole Rider, to see if they can meet the increased demand, with more bikes for the growing school.