Touch down in Maseru after a wonderful trip home for Easter and on the road again to sunny Quthing. My fellow Dolen Cymru colleague Gareth met me and we did the short 2 1/2 hour run to meet the Welsh teachers on the Lesotho Teacher Placement Programme, visit their schools and celebrate their successes so far.
First stop was to see our super programme mentor Kathryn at her placement school, Katleho English Medium school. A little place full of life and vision, able to see how reading, phonics and literacy developments will change the lives of their learners.
A superb reading corner created by Kathryn, thanks to books donated by School Aid. Regular Reading, pupil progress records, daily phonics and lots and lots of training has kept her busy and continuing the Literacy Leap mission in style!
Second stop was Holy Trinity Primary School and a lesson observation of the lovely Ellie and grade 3.
They were excited to design and draw their own coat of arms, with their coats on as it was freezing! Ffion is placed at the school next door, the enormous roll of Moyeni Primary School, where the smallest group is 77 learners! Grade 4 dazzled us with their Phonics knowledge and fantastic differentiated work on 'ai' words.
A new library is being renovated to house all their new books, luckily housed in the grade 1 class at the moment....not sure if they are allowed to touch them however!
Next on our list was the semi-rural school Phahameng, Kim is fully seen as a regular member of staff there with amazing results so far. It was captivating and inspiring to see her acting out 'The Little Red Hen' with her Grade 3's.....they were so entranced by her that they barely noticed the rest of us in the room!
Our second day of visits took us the the huge school of Villa Maria and their morning marching song, getting 950 pupils off to class so efficiently was mightily impressive. Ellie has created a fantastic library and learning space, ready to be used as long as nobody steals the tables, chairs or indeed let's teachers in when they ask (without fearing the wrath of the key holder!)
Scott's 'mini' school, Holy Infant Primary School showed amazing support and appreciation of his efforts in helping them win a local drama and sports competition. He is clearly an appreciated member of the team and the children love him, little reception class high fiving as they pass was so sweet to see.
We saw a wonderful lesson, full of interaction and smiles with lots and lots of learning for some clearly happy children.
He and Will have joined forces to set up the Better Reading Partnership between Holy Infant and Mopholosi High School next door......what a HUGE success. The chosen Peer Mentors attended training enthusiastically and work every week withthe little Grade 2 children sharing story books.
Will then shared with us a fantastic active revision lesson at the high school, the students were clearly trained to discuss, work together and review their learning at the end of the lesson - great afl principals in practice. Well done to all, your doing Lesotho and Dolen Cymru proud!
