Malawi Day Five
Today our established team was augmented by Tom who accompanied us on our visit to Namwiyo Primary. As a respected, retired HT and a MLOL trustee, it was really useful to hear his feedback on the process and the level of engagement from our colleagues.
Further out in the rural zone, Namwiyo is a small primary with ONLY 1266 learners! Almost all were taught outside when MLOL and Holyrood first visited but the learning landscape has changed considerably over the years.
The first very obvious thing to note on arrival was that every single learner and teacher was in class. No one was running around or sitting in the sun (and it was roasting- sorry Scottish pals who are having snow!) Everyone was busy doing what was expected of them. The second thing was the stark absence of litter. Not a single shred of torn paper or omnipotent blue plastic carrier lying around. The environment was spotless! A real example to other Malawian schools.
We were delighted to be greeted by the HT Fanny and her very able DHT Patrick. Patrick had assisted Tom yesterday by delivering CPD to the leadership training participants on the impact of using your library effectively so we expected good things.
Over the period of my visits, Namwiyo has travelled the furthest. They have always been a warm and very nurturing place. Indeed the HT's greatest gift is described as her encouragement and motivation. Each time we visit we offer advice and support in following the national and district policies for administrators and described the sort of evidence which will allow them to use the National Education Standards well to self evaluate. Patrick always provides excellent support to Fanny on these matters.
For the visit time during this trip, we were accompanied by Chairs of the School Managt Committee,PTA and Mothers Group who were not confident enough to participate in English. This allowed our local team members to ensure that sufficient Chichewa was spoken during the meeting for them to contribute.
Over the course of the morning, we repeatedly heard of the impact Chief Mulengu was making in supporting children into school and to remain in school by creating local village bylaws where e.g. it was forbidden for a school age child to be on the street during the day or their parents would incur a fine and a reprimand from him. We had never heard of such bylaws but the SLT, parents and teachers all felt this was having an impact.
During her class visits, where we had encouraged Fanny and Patrick to accompany Carol as a shadowing opportunity, we heard of the most inspiring lesson Carol had ever seen in Malawi. The children in Standard 7 (12-15yrs old) were learning about the science of bacteria and the need to wash clothes properly to remove the bacteria. This was beautifully taught in an active way where the teacher had brought a bucket of water, shirt, soap and scrubbing board to go through the steps with the children. Great attention to equality was given as both boys and girls had a go. It had all the components of a Good Lesson in Glasgow with prior learning being established, LI being referred to throughout the lesson, excellent group work with monitor, scribe and reporter and a planned plenary. She had even planned her assessment with her stage partner before teaching for moderation- It's sad that those who know me professionally know how this will have pleased me.
Conversations about training mothers to use the MLOL sewing machine revealed the parents had not been trained as the school thought it would be a big task and therefore expensive to hire a tailor. By the time I left I had found a teacher from S1 (where I observed excellent use of resources last year) and a beautiful teacher from S7 called Happiness who could sew and had offered to train for free. Three mothers who could sew were also found and I had promised to train six more during my next trip if the school could prove they were trying to help themselves.
Patrick's library club were a confident engaging group so Tom and I took a few minutes to remind them how to run the system exactly to MLOL protocol and suggested ways of learners returning books and replacing them on the correct shelves- of course we explained, modelled then had the children try- a Malawian Good Lesson!
Clear advice on next steps for
improvement was agreed as a full team. Every opportunity was taken to refer to the detail of the Standards and remind colleagues these were not Glasgow standards, but Malawian ones. As the HT and DHT both took copious notes and the PEA Kingsley has now supported two evaluation sessions and asked lots of really good clarifying questions, I believe they have the capacity to take these forward.
It's Friday night, so Tom and Carol have taken pity on me and invited me to Casa Mia for dinner- cannae wait as, guess what........ there's no power at Kabula!!
