Sierra Leone 2014

After a very long but exciting journey we arrived late last night at our destination, Mama Beach, which is only a 15 min drive from our friends in Waterloo! Today we have visited a beautiful local beach and visited the vibrant capital city of Freetown and its museum. We finished our road trip visiting the village of Waterloo where we were were greeted so warmly by all our friends! We are getting up early tomorrow to go mass and spend more time meeting the people of Waterloo!

SUNDAY- Today we went to St.Raphael's church at 10.30 to their brilliantly colourful and musical mass!! We then went to the official 'Welcoming Ceremony' where we introduced ourselves to the other members of the Waterloo partnership. We had a lovely few hours meeting more people of Waterloo. Miss Freckleton enjoyed giving out her football kits to some of the local children and we are all getting really excited about starting school tomorrow!! We were then driven by our brilliant driver Saidu (who remembers Miss Cassidy & co from previous years and send his love!) to see another local beach with Aunty Iris and Horatio. Another great day!!

MONDAY- We've really enjoyed our first day with the children today at Fano!! Their singing and dancing at the welcome assembly was gorgeous and they were all so happy to see us. Miss Dowler spent the morning in Year 1 where the children were v to get their necklaces from the children at All Saints! Miss Freckleton spent the morning with the nursery children and Mr.Barnes did some printing with the Yr 5 and 6 children. Mr.Ralston was coaching football all morning in the heat and Mrs.Maguire worked hard all morning in the local library! Tomorrow we're looking forward to sharing more new experiences with the children and teachers at Fano!!!

TUESDAY

Today we spent our second day at school.  Miss Dowler worked with year 1 and 4 doing some literacy work and was taught how to make African peppermint by Aunty Isatu; she can't wait to show her class when she is back! Miss Freckleton worked with Nursery and Reception classes trying to transform their learning environment as well as reading stories and doing letters and sounds activities.  Mr Barnes enjoyed sharing letters from our children in All Saints with year 5 and 6 children in FANO and is looking forward to bringing the replies back to school.

Mr Ralston spent his second day at the Craig Bellamy football academy, coaching 2 more local schools. A very enjoyable day ended with a World Cup competition and smiles all round. 

We also visited the the vegetation near the swamps in Waterloo where it was very interesting to see how families earn a living.

WEDNESDAY

Mr Ralston welcomed Magic Musa and 20 boys from FANO school to the Craig Bellamy Football Academy for a coaching session.

The boys were really excited to play at the Academy and really enjoyed the session. The boys showed they had lots of footballing skills and there were lots of future generation Messis and Ronaldos on show.

Miss Freckleton introduced the Massage in schools programme in FANO today with Reception and Year 2.  She also delivered Early Years maths training to the teachers from local schools. Miss Dowler spent another lovely day with years 1 and 4 doing local geography and painting. 

It was also wonderful to see the Anfield Children's Centre leading sessions for dozens and dozens of women and children at the library building.  Well done Margie and Chantelle! Another challenging but wonderful day!  Tomorrow wait for news about the schools' tournament and the teacher football challenge - Waterloo, Sierra Leone vs Liverpool, England...and Mr Barnes and others giving a concert in Waterloo...

Week in Sierra Leone

The Literacy FestivalPosted by ictsupport@allsaints.liverpool.sch.ukat 23:40, February 20 2013.Today was very hot and we arrived in good time to prepare for the first day of the Literacy Festival. Mrs Maguire and Miss Lipsey led a workshop on the teaching of phonics whilst the rest of us went to school to help. Miss Thomson worked very hard teaching the Y5 and Y6 pupils about recycling. They sang the song with great enjoyment and we recorded it to show the pupils when we get back. The only problem that Mrs Maguire had was getting the teachers to leave as they had so many questions to ask. Mr Barnes then went to Musa's house and met his lovely family before we all met back together to see the cultural dancing on stage at the festival. It was extraordinary. After a tortuous journey back we all went out to eat at Roy's Bar and discussed the day's events.

Back at FANO SchoolPosted by ictsupport@allsaints.liverpool.sch.ukat 21:29, February 19 2013.We all woke up today very excited for our first full day at FANO. The day started with a whole school assembly. Aunty Iris welcomed us and the children sang some lovely songs. We were delighted to see the All Saints school badge painted on the wall. Next it was time to get stuck in so we all made our way to the different classes. Mr Barnes and Miss Thomson worked with Year 5 and talked about recycling and sang some songs. Musa was very happy to see us all and loved using the iPad to record the children singing. Mrs Maguire and Miss Seddon worked with Year 2 and 3 and made a beautiful friendship garden with lots of different art materials. Miss Lipsey and Mrs Morgan read some stories and sang Jolly Phonics with the little ones. The day at FANO was a home from home, being made to feel so welcome at the school. All the children were so excited to see the staff from All Saints and send their love and best wishes to everybody back in the UK. We then visited the wharf and the bakery where we sang and danced with a variety of local people and the drivers. It was a day of fun, laughter and singing. Literacy festival tomorrow...

Kent BeachPosted by ictsupport@allsaints.liverpool.sch.ukat 22:09, February 17 2013.Today was our welcome to Waterloo! We began by going to mass in St. Raphael's church. Everybody was dressed in their Sunday best and the prayers and singing were beautiful. We were even given our own special welcome with a round of applause. After mass we gathered at St. Raphael's school and met different people from the community and teachers from the schools involved in the Waterloo partnership. Again, we were made to feel very welcome. We quickly made our way to Kent Beach for the FANO school trip and what a school trip it was! Within seconds of arriving, hundreds of people surrounded us, including Aunty Iris, Laura and Musa (in a very bright track suit). Musa has had another baby girl since he left All Saints last year. There was music, dancing, paddling, games of football with all the FANO pupils there. We recognised so many of them and they were asking after our school and so pleased we had come to see them. We were presented with special staff polo shirts and spent a couple of hours having great fun with the staff, children and parents. Then followed a eventful two hour journey back to Freetown with one of the cars breaking down and darkness falling. But we made it and now are getting ready for a full day in Waterloo tomorrow.

First day in Sierra LeonePosted by ictsupport@allsaints.liverpool.sch.ukat 22:00, February 16 2013.After a long yet enjoyable journey, we had a good sleep ready for our first adventure in Freetown today. We had a leisurely stroll, talking to locals and becoming familiar with our new surroundings. Our next stop was the beautiful Lumley beach where we chatted to some fishermen. It was a pleasure to meet so many welcoming people in Sierra Leone. To our surprise, we also met a bizarre entertainer who performed his magic trick for us - eating sand! It's safe to say we won't be trying this magic trick any time soon! Next we visited the iconic Cotton Tree, a symbol of Sierra Leone. To end our day, we were very lucky to be given a tour of the Memorial Gardens where we found out lots of information about the history of the country. It was an eye opening experience. We are looking forward to visiting Waterloo tomorrow!

Staff back home safely

On the final day at FANO, the staff posed for a photograph next to the new All Saints badge outside the Y5/Y6 classroom.