A windy, bouncy, rainy and misty journey to Quthing saw us very happy to
arrive at our guesthouse and our lovely little rondavel studio flat, our home
for 2 weeks. We dove straight into our first workshop at Mphaki Education
Centre on Day 1 and were faced with 75 teachers curious and eager to hear what
we had to say. Our co-operative learning strategies went down very well indeed
as teams got very competitive throughout the day, but were spoilt after the
“sheep” cheated, baaaaa! The
Education Officer was very happy with our work however and promised the
teachers and ourselves that they will fully support our initiative, especially
due to the fact that Quthing is one of the lowest performing districts in the
country.
Workshop 2 was in the Mount Moorosi area of
Quthing it was a highly successful workshop after initial trepidation when the
class of teachers did not look impressed or interested in our presence! After
10 minutes of singing and co-operative learning team building they were smiling
and enthusiastic!! All tasks went well and all groups worked with full
enthusiasm, even the Education Officers were taking part! Ntate Serutla was so
full of inspiration and praise after the workshop we are fully confident we can
really work closely with him to raise standards in the whole district.
Dalawe centre was
our difficult third workshop where the venue had to be changed at the last
minute and poor weather severely effected play. We had to cut out the
co-operative learning part of the programme due to time constraints and
difficulties with the group. By the end of the workshop most teachers had an
understanding of our aims and objectives, but due to the delayed start many
were tired and unable to concentrate. Participation during the workshop was
average and learning not as evident as in previous sessions. Overall feedback
was positive and many want to implement the strategies shown to them, but
further support sessions will be needed as a matter of urgency.
An excellent workshop was held in Makaoe,
way up in the mountains and where time forgot with maximum interest and participation by all teachers
attending. The EO did not stay however and sadly showed no interest in the
content of our workshop. The teachers understanding of Phonics was good and
evidence of teaching letter sounds was present in the school. Also one teacher
was writing an assessment on Co-operative learning and was very happy to see
the theory in practice.
An extremely large workshop was our final
one in Moyeni with excellent attendance, however in hindsight should have been
split into two sessions on two separate days. Despite the cramped conditions
and the heat the teachers were keen and participated well in relation to our
Co-operative Learning strategies and Phonics content. They all are very happy
to accommodate the visiting Welsh teachers in January and most seem keen to
implement our training.
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