Senior Leadership Team Meeting

It is a rare and wonderful thing to have all of our school directors, head teachers and senior teachers together in one place.

At the start of this term we came together for a senior leadership meeting on ‘Developing a School Improvement plan’ and a great day was had by all. We learnt from each other – sharing thoughts, ideas and little pearls of wisdom about helping children achieve their best and the future of our schools. 

Our friends, who run a private school that uses UK teachers to team-teach and train Zambian teachers, had very kindly offered to host us for the day. So we spent the day there with our staff, seeing this school in action; which then paved the way for lots of constructive discussion.

Everybody got to spend some time watching good phonics lessons, seeing children “learning through play”, discussing what makes a successful lesson and consequently what makes a successful school.

The photos below give you a small snapshot of the day’s activities…

1. Here the headteachers and senior teachers are watching Fatima (a local teacher) teaching phonics to a group of Grade 2 children.

2. ‘Silly Soup’ games with Fatima showing how to teach phonics in a fun way. 

3. Headteacher Mary (Kawama) with senior teachers Ireen (Janna) and Maureen (Greater Joy) discussing the first phonics lesson they watched.  Later they shared their thoughts with the group telling us exactly why they thought the lesson was a success.

4. Emily getting some lessons on how to run a school in Zambia!

We all left that day feeling excited and ready to start the 3^rd term.

It has been great going into the schools after the training and seeing the head teachers sharing the school improvement plan with the rest of the staff; motivating and challenging them to be the best teachers they can be and supporting them in getting the best from the children they teach.

As we say in Zambia – “It has been a good exposure!” 

Dependent

Many of the children that come to our partner schools, don’t have parents. Some have passed away, other parents have left their children with relatives in search of jobs, money, or relationships. The children of these parents are often taken in by 'aunties' and 'uncles' or other family members. It is rare for a child to be totally abandoned. Family members are very good at taking in their relatives and giving them a home.

When a child comes into a family where the mum and dad are not their own, they become a ‘dependent’ of that couple, or that person. In Zambia, this is a very common occurrence. On government, legal or other official forms when one is asked about their family situation there will be a place to list your children, and then another list for your dependents.

Many families are quite large because of this. As you can imagine, this puts financial pressure on the carer, more mouths to feed, more bodies to clothe, needs that demand money that these carers often don’t have. Because of these pressures, and probably for cultural reasons I don’t yet understand, these dependents aren’t considered to have the same standing in a family as the parent’s natural born children.

 

Last week I had a conversation with one of the directors we work with about how the demands on a dependent in their home can be disproportionate and how, in some situations, the way they are treated is actually heartbreaking. In terms of education, many carers send their dependents to community schools like ours. They wouldn’t pay for their dependents to attend government school, so community schools are a good way to send a child to school and sadly for some, it’s way of getting rid of the child for the day

We have the privilege to work with these children in our schools and see them flourish. The teachers of the schools get to love on these children, remind them they are valued and cared for. From the amazing smiles that adorn the beautiful faces of the children at these schools, you’d never guess the struggles so many of them have. There is a strength inside these children that is remarkable. What a privilege to see Jesus at work every day, feeding, clothing, and educating nearly 1000 children through the staff at the schools we partner with.

It’s our prayer that those who are orphaned in the physical world would feel the love of God through the staff, and not feel like orphans in their hearts.

Beyond the Bike: The Next Revolution! (The warm up!)

The first stage of Beyond the Bike is complete!

On Saturday 5th September, Stuart and Claire set off on their adventure with a few friends to help them 'warm up' for their ride to China - they cycled over 500km through 4 countries in 4 days!

Day 1: London to Dover - a lot of hills, a total climb of 1350m that day
Day 2: Dunkirk to Ghent – flatter terrain, but a long day
Day 3: Ghent to Breda – mentally tough with tired bodies
Day 4: Breda to Amsterdam – they made it!

We had a lot of fun over the four days, and a lot of sore muscles too... Yet we all loved being a part of the beginning of this year’s Beyond the Bike adventure.

With London to Amsterdam under their belt (or should that be their lycra shorts?!) Stuart and Claire are now continuing on to Uganda and then to Zambia where I’ll meet up with them again.

Beyond the Bike isn’t just another sponsored cycled ride, it’s a tool for education too, connecting classrooms all over the world. However, every penny that is raised goes to Beyond Ourselves and United World Schools helping us to make a difference in the lives and communities of children in both Africa and Asia. In case you haven’t seen it yet, watch this short video about Beyond the Bike: The Next Revolution

The Journey Begins!

This week marks the start of Beyond the Bike: The Next Revolution.

The first few days of this epic adventure will see a group of us putting on our lycra early Saturday morning and departing from the leafy suburbs of London to cycle 4 countries in 4 days - that’s (nearly) 400 miles...

Our team is joining Beyond the Bike for their warm up ride, cycling from London to Amsterdam.

Stuart and Claire will then be cycling more than 10,000km through Southern Africa and Asia raising money for Beyond Ourselves in Zambia and United World Schools in Asia.

Visit the Beyond The Bike website for more details about Stuart, Claire and their challenge. Or watch this fantastic 3 minute video:



Beyond the Bike is also an exciting educational project; following the route of natural resources from African mine to Asian factory, connecting classrooms and sharing resources worldwide. Using smartphones to record the journey they will be partnered with Fairphone, a mobile phone company that puts social values first, based in Amsterdam. From there they will fly to Uganda to start their big adventure.

It would be great if you could join us in giving Stuart and Claire an encouraging start to their ride and to raise funds for Beyond Ourselves and United World Schools. Click here to make a donation:

https://www.justgiving.com/teams/BTB-Amsterdam

What's coming up for Beyond Ourselves!?

These last two weeks of August always feel a little like the calm before the storm in the world of Beyond Ourselves. September to December is possibly the fullest part of the year for us. So I’ve been taking the opportunity this week to carefully plan my weekly work schedule for this coming term and prepare for all that’s ahead…

The first week of September brings exciting events for the teams in both continents!

In Europe, a group of us will be setting off on the first leg of the new Beyond the Bike adventure. We’ll be cycling from London to Amsterdam with Stuart and Claire, and then they will be heading down to Africa and eventually on to China! (Another group of us will be joining up with them again in Zambia in October).

And in Africa, the Zambia team will be arriving back from the UK refreshed and ready to start off the new school term with staff training days at each of our partner schools.

Then with 35 visitors coming on team to Zambia and 1000 children to interview, the rest of the term will just fly by!

For one night only…

Last night was a very special evening for Team Beyond Ourselves – for the first time ever we were all in the same room at the same time!

Diane, who joined our team in September last year and is based here in the UK overseeing all things finance, got to meet Dan, Melissa and Emily for the first time and put faces to the names and email addresses she knows so well!

And clearly Dan and Karen were very happy to be back together again!

                                         From left to right: Karen, Emily, Dan, Jodie, Diane and Melissa

A very quick run down on who’s who:

Karen - based in the UK, been with Beyond Ourselves since the very beginning in 2009, oversees all events and fundraising amongst other things

Emily – based in Zambia with her husband and kids, started in January of this year, works alongside the Zambian teachers in our partner schools developing education

Dan – based in Zambia, officially joined Beyond Ourselves in 2013, married to Melissa, oversees the ‘big picture’ in Zambia

Jodie – (that’s me!), mostly based in UK but in Zambia a couple of months of the year, oversees the ‘big picture’ generally and is the voice for Beyond Ourselves here in the UK

Diane – based in the UK office, been with Beyond Ourselves for almost a year now, oversees the finance and child sponsorship admin in the UK

Melissa – based in Zambia with Dan and their boys, has been part of Beyond Ourselves since 2009, oversees the child sponsorship operations in Zambia and community connections there, as well as all of our design work too

Hopefully, that gives you an idea of what our team do, but it can't capture who they are. I'm not one to brag generally, but as I said last night I think I get to work with the best team on the planet! They are committed, passionate, hard-working and fun! And it is my honour to work alongside them.

Here's the only serious photo we managed to capture!

Clean water for all three schools in Zambia!

'Tis the season for holidays and most of the Beyond Ourselves team are enjoying some time off over August - resting and relaxing, rejuvenating and refreshing!

It's HOT where I am today, kind of steamy hot, and so I am drinking glasses and glasses of bottled water to stay hydrated. And as I have sat drinking my clean, cool water I am so thankful for it!

And it has reminded me how grateful I am that over these past 18 months or so we have seen bore holes dug at all three of our partner schools. Greater Joy, Janna and Kawama now all have access to water on the school site.

Water that is not only refreshing on a hot day, but clean water that is safe for them to drink, cook with and wash in.

Life changing.

Not just for the school children and staff, but for the surrounding communities too who also have access to the water from a community tap at each school.

Community transforming.

If you helped make this happen, I raise my glass (of water) and say thank you!