Prep School partnership brings excitement to the St Paul Kaaso community
The new prep school partnership between Northbourne Park School (NPS), England and St Paul Kaaso, Uganda was brought to life this summer when Lizzie Hulton-Harrop (former Graduate Assistant at NPS) visited Kabira village in August. She had carefully packed in her suitcase a collage of daily life at NPS, made by the pupils during the summer term, along with many books from the school library and a letter from the Headmaster, Edward Balfour. As soon as she arrived in Uganda, Dominic Mukwaya, the Director of St Paul Kaaso was keen to express his excitement about the school partnership. He said, “We are very much interested in this partnership and I am quite sure a lot of results will be yielded from this link. So we are very happy. Thank you to the Head Teacher who had this dream, to Liz who made the connection, and to other members of the staff there and the members of staff at Kaaso. I hope that so many good things will come out of this partnership.” Not only will it be an excellent opportunity for the pupils at each school to broaden their knowledge of life in a foreign country, it will also open up an avenue for the teachers to exchange ideas and collaborate.
During her stay, Lizzie spent a lot of time with the children at St Paul Kaaso who remained there over the summer months (either because they are orphans or because they are in the top year group and preparing for their leaving examinations in November). She shared many stories about Northbourne Park School with the children and introduced them to some English activities, like a game of rounders. “The children were so excited to learn about this school in Kent, and had so many questions about it, I could barely keep up! We decided to take some time out of their morning lesson to write letters to pupils at NPS. I came home with 67 letters in total! And that was only from one class!” commented Lizzie.
It will be fantastic for Lizzie to visit NPS during the first few weeks of the autumn term and tell the staff and pupils all about her stay at Kaaso. She is excited to show them her photos and videos from the trip and for the two schools to begin their journey in educational development. Each school has many ideas for how to make the partnership successful, like linking Environmental Clubs, exchanging language lessons (Luganda- English, French- English), and even introducing Skype sessions.
As Dominic says, “We don’t know how the beginning will be, but the beginning is a beginning and the best way to begin is to start now.” So roll on the autumn term and let’s get going!